Use of B&B accommodation for homeless people drops to a record low

Sevenoaks District Council has for the first time no homeless people occupying bed and breakfast accommodation.

The significant drop in the use of this type of accommodation came about after the Council put in place an action plan to tackle the issue four years ago.

In 2003, the Council had fairly high use of bed and breakfast accommodation with an average of 35 households in occupation with an average length of stay of around 25 weeks.

That year representatives from the Council met with Lord Rooker at the House of Commons to discuss the issue and shortly after the Council produced an action plan to reduce the use of bed and breakfast accommodation.

Soon after the plan was implemented things improved. By 1 April 2004 the average length of stay had drastically reduced to less than six weeks achieving the Government's target and the average number of households in occupation had reduced to around 25. The use of bed and breakfast accommodation steadily declined thereafter until the most recent figures were compiled on 5 February when no people were recorded as occupying this type of accommodation.

Cllr Carol Clark, the Council's Cabinet member with responsibility for Balanced Communities, including housing, says: "This is an excellent achievement and demonstrates how committed the Council is to sustaining communities and avoiding social exclusion. The use of bed and breakfast accommodation over a sustained period is not well suited to families or vulnerable people and offers poor value for money for local tax payers, so it's good news for everyone that we are now using it much less."

The Council has achieved this success by offering schemes to avoid homelessness, such as:

Providing more housing advice
Funding the three Citizens Advice Bureaux to provide debt counselling and mortgage advice
Promoting the 'Homeless at Home' initiative and providing appropriate points through the Housing Register
Offering mediation
Funding Shelter to provide a court desk at Dartford County Court to avoid eviction
Providing a Supported Lodgers Scheme for under 18s
Funding floating support for under 18s to enable them to be housed within housing association stock
Offering 'Granting Homes Scheme' which is an Empty Homes initiative offering landlord grant incentives to improve the properties providing the property is offered to homeless families for a three to five year period
Offering the 'Rent in advance' and 'Deposit Bond' schemes to rent privately.

The Council aims to sustain minimal use of bed and breakfast accommodation by only offering it in emergency situations. The Council is already on target to reduce by 50% the use of temporary accommodation in line with Government requirements by 2010.