Shropshire Council to buy homes for homeless to save B&B cash

Shropshire Council currently has 135 households in B&Bs

A council is set to spend £5m buying 60 houses to try to cut the number of homeless people staying in bed and breakfast lodgings.

In the Shropshire Council catchment area, there are 135 households - either single people or families - living in B&Bs, with the authority saying it wants to reduce reliance on the hotels.

Councillors on Thursday backed the plan to buy properties across the county.

The measure should save about £1m annually, the authority said.

However cabinet member for housing, Dean Carroll, said the "far more important" consideration was the improved quality of life for those in need of homes.

"Bed and breakfasts are absolutely not the right place for us to be placing people," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council agreed in 2020 to spend £1.5m to find more temporary accommodation for households presenting as homeless, using money from Section 106 agreements with housing developers.

But the updated plan will have a budget of £5m, with the difference funded through borrowing and the homes bought by the authority rather than rented.

The majority will be one-bedroom homes, with some two and three-bedroom homes for families.

The properties would be managed by the council's "arm's-length" social housing provider as those needing them are supported to move on to a more permanent home.