Council on Essex border plans £4.1m spend on affordable housing as residents placed around 55 miles away

A Hertfordshire council has agreed how it will spend £4.062million set aside for council homes. Broxbourne Borough Council cannot house everybody waiting for social and affordable housing within its area, and has sent some people who need temporary accommodation to Peterborough - around 55 miles away.

There are approximately 1,296 live applicants on the authority's housing register. Developers with building projects in Cheshunt, Goffs Oak and Waltham Cross have handed money to the authority to support in affordable and social housing.

At meetings on Tuesday, April 9, the authority agreed to grant £1.08m to B3Living - a housing association working on a project to supply 42 new affordable one and two-bed homes at Barrow Lane and The White House in Cheshunt. B3Living and Homes England will also chip in to the project using their own funds - with a total £1.88m investment into Barrow Lane and £9.96m at The White House.

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"These sites are 100 per cent affordable rented housing with all homes being let to households on the council's housing register," a meeting report notes. "B3Living's development programme is currently stalled and it is not financially viable to continue due to the changing economic conditions, including significant increases in construction and borrowing costs, making the sector more risk averse and further driving up the cost of construction." The report notes Homes England funding cannot fully bridge the costs gap, part of Broxbourne Borough Council's rationale for putting forward developers' contributions.

An additional undisclosed figure will go to B3Living to acquire Market Court, Hoddesdon, which could be used for affordable housing. The authority will also apply to become a registered provider of social housing itself. "This approach would allow the council to continue to support its housing association partners but also provide the opportunity to impact the delivery of affordable housing more directly and provide homes to families on its housing register," the report sets out.

14 households placed beyond Broxbourne's boundary

A freedom of information request sent by the Local Democracy Reporting Service has revealed the authority made 252 temporary accommodation placements in 2023. This is down from 361 placements in 2019 and 274 in 2020.

Each household may have multiple placements, Broxbourne Borough Council said in response to the request. Temporary accommodation is somewhere to live while councils find longer term housing. Of the 252 placements, a total 14 were made outside Broxbourne's boundaries.

The authority made three placements in Peterborough. The cathedral city is around 55 miles from Hoddesdon "as the crow flies". At the ticket machine, a super off peak train ticket from Cheshunt to Peterborough costs £36.50 each way, with a change at Cambridge.

Broxbourne Borough Council also made five placements in the London Borough of Enfield. The authority made one placement each in St Neots in Cambridgeshire, Harlow in Essex, the London Borough of Newham, Stevenage, Welwyn Hatfield and East Herts.