Oxford City Council urges government for help housing homeless

There are currently 220 households in temporary accommodation in the city

Urgent government action on the cost of providing temporary accommodation to homeless people is required, a city council has said.

Oxford City Council has asked to meet Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove to find ways to cut the current costs.

It comes as the council looks set to agree £1.65m worth of grants to help prevent rough sleeping.

There are currently 220 households in temporary accommodation in the city.

That figure is projected to reach 315 by July, with the council warning the scale and speed with which families are being made homeless will force them to use expensive hotels as interim housing.

On 13 March, the council's cabinet is expected to approve a £1.65m investment in preventing homelessness - with about £1.3m of that being used to fund supported accommodation.

The government provides a subsidy for councils to pay for temporary accommodation. However, this was frozen at 90% of the Local Housing Allowance in 2011 and has not been increased since.

Councillor Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, said the government "must do more to help local authorities, but it also needs to do more to help families struggling to pay their rent".

She added: "This is devastating for those families as well as a national financial crisis for local government."

A spokesperson from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "We recognise councils are facing challenges and are increasing their overall proposed funding for next year to £64.7bn - a 7.5% increase in cash terms - on top of the £2bn we are giving them to help reduce the need for temporary accommodation and tackle homelessness in their areas.

"Our commitment to building more homes and boosting social housing supply remains, and our £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands more affordable homes to rent and buy across the country."

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