Council plans to buy 130 flats to house homeless

Medway Council will discuss plans to buy 130 flats to be used as temporary accommodation

A council is to discuss plans to buy 130 flats to be used as temporary accommodation for homeless people.

Medway Council is proposing to buy two blocks of flats in a bid to save money by creating its own temporary accommodation rather than using more costly private providers.

The authority previously approved plans to invest 10s of millions of pounds into buying 150 properties for rough sleepers in January.

The plans, which will be funded out of the original £42 million budget, will be discussed next week.

The council is aiming to reduce the amount it spends on privately provided temporary accommodation as over-relying on this has been deemed "financially unsustainable" by officers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Since the funding was approved last year, 28 properties have already been purchased for temporary accommodation. The acquisition of another 39 properties have been approved and is going through the legal process.

If approved, the new properties would bring the total number purchased under the scheme to 197 units for temporary accommodation.

'Long-term assets'

Medway Council trialled running its own temporary accommodation in January 2023, purchasing 20 properties for £5.6 million.

On the table are four options to be considered by the authority's cabinet, including continuing using private rental accommodation, leasing properties on a longer-term basis, and even the authority setting up its own letting agency.

Officer say the total cost of privately renting 150 units of temporary accommodation would come to £1,718,826 per night compared with £1,044,076 per night if it bought them and ran them itself, paying off borrowing over 50 years.

They also argue by purchasing the properties, the authority would gain a set of long-term assets.

The plans will be discussed at a meeting of the council's cabinet on 8 April.