Lincoln City Council spends almost £100k on hotels for homeless

The council made 295 room bookings at the Travelodge hotel in the city for homeless and vulnerable people

A council has spent £96,213 on hotel rooms for homeless people because of a shortage of emergency and temporary accommodation.

A Freedom of Information request to Lincoln City Council found 295 rooms had been booked at a Travelodge in the city since last November.

A council spokeswoman said the rooms were used as "a last resort".

The authority expects to get most of the money back from the government through housing benefit, she added.

Paula Burton, housing solutions manager at the council, said: "We only use Travelodge as a last resort but, at busy times, there can be a shortage of suitable emergency and temporary accommodation in Lincoln.

"This means Travelodge needs to be used more often than we would like."

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She added: "Despite government cuts to local authority budgets we have maintained a constant level of support for tackling homelessness and we will continue to do whatever we can to help where and when possible."

The council bought the hotel, in Tentercroft Street, in March last year and leased it to Travelodge for 25 years.