Issue - decisions

To accept Rough Sleeping Winter Pressures Funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) of £42,388 for 2024/25, and to allocate this funding for the purposes set out below.

On 21^st February 2025, MHCLG notified Cheltenham Borough Council (CBC) that it had allocated £42,388 funding to CBC with the objective of providing support for people in housing crisis and prevent homelessness and rough sleeping. MHCLG highlighted that funding was targeting areas with pressures resulting from rent arrears.

This funding will also increase our impact over the winter months in supporting vulnerable households facing homelessness and those seeking solutions to their homelessness. It will include a focus on increasing prevention activities that result in less households being placed into temporary accommodation and fewer people sleeping rough for the first time.

As part of the funding criteria, we are looking to implement the following interventions to achieve the outcomes:

•      Payment of arrears in private, social or supported housing where threat of eviction is resolved

•     Payment of historical arrears to enable access to social housing or supported housing where arrears are a barrier to access

The estimated costs of these initiatives are between £9,000 and £12,000, and this is based on current research on applicants currently known to CBC’s Housing Options Team. Actual costs will be dependent upon households approaching CBC for assistance and cases will be carefully considered to ensure the use of this funding is spent wisely.

•     Resources to provide ongoing support to people when they are accommodated to help them sustain their tenancy. This could include the provision of home starter packs to enable rapid rehousing

•     Payment or provision of goods to enable people to stay living with family or friends for a longer period until alternative accommodation can be sourced

The estimated costs of these initiatives would be between £3,000 and £6,000. However, whilst we have tried to be as accurate as possible with potential provision of help in this area this is a new initiative and costs may fluctuate.

•     Landlord incentives, and payment of rent in advance or deposits

We would exhaust all other avenues, and work in conjunction with potential discretionary housing allowance payments but estimate costs could be in the region of £4,000 to £7,000 if we are able to obtain landlords willing to work with us.

• Start-up costs to bring existing surplus accommodation owned by a Registered Provider (P3) for use as emergency accommodation in Cheltenham, so as to reduce CBC’s reliance on making emergency Bed & Breakfast placements outside of our local authority area.

The estimated startup costs of this initiative would be between £10,000 and £15,000; however actual costs will be dependent on agreed costs to prepare an identified property ready for occupation e.g. new furniture, installation of CCTV linked to another P3 building for monitoring.

·         Other activities to support and reduce homelessness pressures around prevention, reduction in use of temporary accommodation, and upstream initiatives to prevent future rough sleeping. This would, in effect, be a contribution towards existing staffing costs within our Housing Interventions Team. This team sits within CBC’s Housing Options Service.

The estimated contribution could be as little as £2,500, depending on the success or otherwise of our other spend initiatives as set out above. Essentially, CBC will ensure that all of MHCLG’s grant allocation of £42,388 is committed for spend by the end of March 2025. This means that if less of the grant funding is spent elsewhere, then more of the grant will be used to contribute towards these staffing costs.

It is therefore anticipated that 100% of this funding allocation will be committed for spend by end of March 2025 and any underspend on our forecasted estimates will go towards the costs of staffing our Housing Interventions Team to continue providing support for people in housing crisis and prevent homelessness and rough sleeping. However, in the even that there is an underspend, this may need to be returned to MHCLG.