Yahoo News Council to buy 6 new homes in Epsom and Ewell to ease £2.34m temporary accommodation bill
A Surrey council will be given a one-off grant to buy six homes to help combat its spending on temporary accommodation for homeless families. Epsom and Ewell Borough Council will receive £1,493,250 in one-off funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to help reduce its £2.34m annual bill on expensive nightly accommodation.
The local authority will use the cash to buy six properties, including one for helping Afghan families resettle. The two to three bedroom houses would be owned by the council and located within the borough of Epsom and Ewell.
It was initially hoped the grant could be spent on the council’s recently approved temporary housing pods but it was refused by the government. Councillor Hannah Dalton told the strategy and resources committee: “They turned us down because they want us to invest in bricks and mortar.”
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Council documents state the programme will reduce local housing pressures by providing better quality housing, reduce emergency accommodation costs and reduce the impact on those waiting for social housing. It adds that the initiative will also provide sustainable housing for Afghan citizens on the resettlement scheme so they can “build new lives in the UK, find employment and integrate into communities".
Following the unanimous approval of the scheme, the council will receive the first payment in January 2025, with three instalments spread out over two years. The council is also contributing £75,000 from Section 106 developers contributions, towards the scheme. Section 106 is put towards community and social infrastructure projects, this can include social housing.
The new scheme will still cost the taxpayer £35,000 a year for the maintenance of the properties. However, it is a smaller sum than the £115,000 the council was spending on the equivalent accommodation costs. Saving an estimated £80,000 in total, it would take just over nine years for the council to be paid back from buying the properties.
Around £2.34m was forked out on temporary accommodation by the council last year alone. Council bosses hope the funding to purchase houses will help it reduce the annual cost of expensive nightly accommodation with permanent homes.
Officers told the committee on November 12, they had already identified a couple houses suitable for the scheme before they have been put on the market. Conditions set by the Ministry mean that the properties have to be either freehold, or minimum leasehold of 125 years.
If the council is unable to buy the six properties by March 2026, the funding must be returned by MHCLG. The council will face no penalty if it does not deliver.
