Councillors you are sleepwalking into a housing AND financial DISASTER!
As you know, Councils have legal duty to house local people who become homeless. Typically, your Council put people up in hotels or hostels until more permanent arrangements can be made. So, as homelessness has increased in recent years, so therefore has the financial burden on your Council.
A study released last week branded the crisis as “unsustainable" and puts many councils at risk of becoming "effectively bankrupt", creating "massive uncertainty" to the future of local services.
This is happening across the country.
But I want to look at London specifically… as they hit the news last week with a very bleak and stark picture.
Between January and March this year London had 4,427 rough sleepers (remember that number… it becomes significant later). London Councils says boroughs overspent on the 2024/25 homelessness budget by £330m - with spending in this area increasing by a staggering 68% in a single year. According to its recent analysis, more than 183,000 Londoners are currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation. This includes 90,000 children!
Add to this the fact that the private rented sector has shrunk by 11k homes or 4.3% further driving up rental prices and thereby creating even more homelessness.
The estimated cost is a mind boggling £4million PER DAY!
So, let’s apply a bit of practical maths to this.
So, I got on google and found myself a plot of land for sale… 412 - 416 Streatham High Road in Lambeth with a guide price of £950k. It is a generous old corner plot with run-down existing buildings and a large yard ready for redevelopment. If we then “price up” a development at roughly £300k per unit we can comfortably build a block with 13 units for that £4million.
If take that as a “rule of thumb” i.e Councils spend the equivalent of 13 flats worth of money on B&Bs, hostels and hotels every day, 365 days per year it comes to a whopping 4,745 flats that COULD have been built. But remember the 4,427 rough sleepers? Even if we built those numbers, we would only deal with the rough sleepers… we haven’t even touched the temporary accommodation yet.
Then you read about Councillors on Planning Committees and LPAs refusing planning applications with 40% and even up to 50% affordable homes being delivered on site.
Councillors and Councils really need to wake up to this crisis and start working with developers and get London building. And yes, this does mean high density housing… or commonly known as towers. If we can’t build high rise housing in London, then where can we?
Until next week,
Henry