The growing tendency of councils to use ‘out of area’ placements to discharge their housing responsibilities is increasing tension between local authorities. Paul Marinko investigates.
When councils are accusing each other of deliberately ‘exporting’ their ‘most difficult’ housing cases and ‘shipping people out’ on an ‘industrial scale’ to ‘cleanse themselves of the challenge’, it’s clear tensions are running high.
Housing pressures for the sector are at an all-time peak and this has led to growing instances of ‘Out of Area’ (OOA) placements – the practice of housing people both temporarily and permanently in other council areas.
The MJ has previously highlighted the tensions between northern authorities and southern councils, especially London boroughs, due to the latter placing people hundreds of miles north in order to dispense with their housing responsibilities.
And OOA placements are a problem that is only getting worse, with Lambeth recently admitting it will have to place more families out of area given chronic housing pressures.
Danny Adilypour, Lambeth’s deputy leader and cabinet member for housing, investment and new homes has said: ‘Our new placement policy reflects the challenging reality we face – record numbers of families presenting themselves as homeless in Lambeth every day and unsustainable pressure on council finances caused by our increased need to source temporary accommodation to keep these families off the streets.
‘While this will mean placing families further away from Lambeth than they would like to be, we are determined to give them the stability and security they desperately need by giving them longer term placements in areas that will meet their family, cultural and community needs.’
While the Local Government Association (LGA) has established a working group to address the growing North/South divide, Freedom of Information (FOI) data gathered by The MJ from London boroughs has revealed the vast majority of the capital’s OOA placements are to neighbouring or near-neighbouring authorities.
This means many go to other London boroughs but a significant proportion go to nearby districts and unitaries. It’s a phenomenon that is stoking anger and disgruntlement among receiving authorities.
‘Most councils recognise and understand the need for emergency hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation in another borough for a short period of time until they can find something locally, but that’s not what’s happening here,’ explains Dan Sword, leader of Harlow DC in Essex.
‘They are shipping people out on an industrial scale to essentially cleanse themselves of the challenge.
‘All that happens with out-of-borough placements is you move people away from any support that they may have. Kids’ schools is a really good example. So, you’re moving vulnerable people away from any support they do have.’
In addition, Cllr Sword argues that the practice not only removes the availability of scant units for the home authority but also pushes up prices.
‘Harlow residents and Harlow council are being priced out of the local market by London boroughs. They have the financial means to pay a heck of a lot more.’
‘I recognise the challenge that London boroughs have got, but the solution to that is not just to move the problem somewhere else that doesn’t have that level of local housing allowance – somewhere that doesn’t get that financial support.’
Spelthorne BC in Surrey is facing a similar plight to Harlow. Its chief executive, Daniel Mouawad, told The MJ a few months ago: ‘We are on the periphery of London and subjected to the same pressures, because central London’s just literally bleeding out, and it’s going to all the surrounding areas.’
‘Ordinarily authorities are meant to inform other authorities when they place people in their boroughs. But, in practice it actually very rarely happens because there’s so much traffic and it’s happening so quickly, in such concentrations, that the system just can’t keep up.’
‘We have one particular property that has 50 self-contained flats, which until recently we as a borough ourselves only ever utilised one of them. All the rest were from outside the borough. And what that means is that for a borough of our size is that it causes significant difficulties.’
‘Typically, in any given day, I sign-off over 200 family units in temporary accommodation, typically bed and breakfast accommodation. And for some of them we have to, ironically, send them outside the borough, because there is literally nothing in the borough that we can tap into.’
It has led Spelthorne to seek innovative solutions. The borough has ‘consolidated’ its town hall by 43%, says Mouawad, and converted the rest into 25 affordable, long-term apartments for those most in housing need.
Read the full article on the MJ
Photo: Richard Webb / Openverse
Leave a Reply