PROVIDING temporary accommodation for residents in West Devon cost 85 per cent over budget last year.

The borough council earmarked just under £300,000 to house families at risk of homelessness, but expenditure rose to over half a million pounds.

Council leader Mandy Ewings (Ind, Tavistock South West) told a recent hub committee that the authority is in a better position than most as it has the lowest number of people in temporary accommodation in Devon.

Currently 14 households are in temporary accommodation, made up of 12 single people and two families.

In the neighbouring council area of Torridge, government figures showed 60 households were in temporary accommodation at the end of last year, including 104 children, and 34 in the South Hams, including 20 children.

In North Devon the figure was 78 households, half of which had dependent children.

Cllr Ewings said West Devon had “got off lightly”.

She said some councils had gone 80 per cent over their temporary accommodation budget and some, particularly unitary authorities which had large adult social care and children’s services costs, were close to going bankrupt.

Cllr Ewings continued: “Cllr Ursula Mann (Ind, Tavistock North) and I attended a South West Councils’ meeting and we were told there’s got to be another 11,000 refugees accommodated down here, so it’s fairly tough numbers.

“It’s hitting councils really really hard and something needs to be done, because it is something we have to pay for but we don’t really get anything back to help us pay for it.”

West Devon has converted a property in Plymouth Road into three flats to be used as temporary accommodation and has purchased nine homes for refugees across the borough with help from the Local Authority Housing Fund. These will be available as temporary accommodation for local people in the future.

The authority is also refurbishing a property at Spring Hill in Tavistock which will provide two flats.

Councillors were told that it was not a case of under-budgeting last year, just that the demand was so high.

Local authorities claim buying properties is a more cost effective way of providing temporary housing than placing people in B and Bs and hotels.

Despite the rising costs, the borough council ended the year with a surplus of £149,000 from its £8.5 million budget, which will go into its unearmarked reserves which now stands at £1.7 million.

But chief executive Andy Bates warned: “We are a long way from getting to the peak of this issue. I am certain our housing team will be planning well, but this is a demand-led issue.

“I think it will continue to be a pressure on our finances for the next 12 months to two years. Until our own plans progress and we find out how the new government plans to deal with housing, we need to keep a sharp eye.

“So far we have not been impacted us as much as others.”

Alison Stephenson

LDRS