Purpose

The report set out the Council’s plans to increase the provision of the Council owned temporary accommodation for people who have become homeless.

Decision

The Cabinet agreed the following recommendations:

1) Recommend to Council to approve a budget of £1.5m to purchase a property that includes 10 homes funded by the General Fund for use as temporary accommodation and authorise the Assistant Directors of Finance and Housing to approve the purchase and negotiate the price and terms of acquisition, subject to completing due diligence to their satisfaction in consultation with the Solicitor to the Council & Monitoring Officer.

2) Recommend to Council to approve a budget of £150k to cover the design work and planning application for a scheme of 24 modular homes funded by the General Fund for use as temporary accommodation.

3) Delegate to the Assistant Director of Housing, in consultation with the Assistant Director of Finance and the Solicitor to the Council, to agree upon an agreement to allow homes to be placed on HRA land.

4) Recommend to Council to approve a budget of £1.2m to provide match funding to enable the acquisition of 7 homes for use as temporary accommodation through the Local Authority Housing Fund Round 4, into the General Fund and authorise the Assistant Directors of Finance and Housing to approve the purchases and negotiate the prices and terms of acquisition, subject to completing due diligence to their satisfaction in consultation with the Solicitor to the Council and Monitoring Officer.

5) Authorise the Solicitor to the Council and Monitoring Officer to negotiate, finalise and complete all necessary legal agreements and other documents to give effect to the above.

Alternative options considered

Option 1 - agree to 3 different proposals as means of providing ABC owned temporary accommodation

Option 2 - do not agree to the proposals