Local housing situation is 'unsustainable'

There are now record numbers of people trapped in the homeless system in Scotland with some councils now calling a Housing Emergency.

What you need to know?

1. West Lothian has the 4^th highest number of households in temporary accommodation in Scotland - behind only three of Scotland's largest councils in Glasgow City, Fife and City of Edinburgh. The service holds a total of 11,464 applications, of which 1,080 are homeless applications.
2. In July 2023, SOLACE and CoSLA (external organisations) made a call for an emergency response to the emerging housing supply pressures. Their 'Housing in Scotland: Current Context and Preparing for the Future' report detailed their assessment of the housing emergency in Scotland and the steps needed to address it. The report makes it clear that the housing reality in Scotland is that there are simply not enough social and affordable homes available and councils currently have inadequate means to reverse this position.
3. The report sets out the unsustainable pressure on local authority housing, the challenges and barriers that are limiting the supply of new homes and social rent tenancies and recommends action needed to implement change at pace and scale.
4. In response to this report, the Scottish Government announced there would be an additional £2million for local authorities facing the most significant temporary accommodation pressures to support stock activity and provide the resource needed. However, it has been confirmed that West Lothian Council will receive no funding to alleviate temporary accommodation pressures.
5. The impact of this approach has meant that a number of councils experiencing the most significant pressures in the provision of temporary accommodation - including West Lothian Council - have been disregarded.

Why are costs rising?

The council is projecting an overspend of £2.542 million on homelessness in 2023/24. This is caused, mainly, due to the legal requirement on the council to place anyone from anywhere in the UK who presents as homeless in West Lothian into emergency accommodation. The lack of available properties in West Lothian means the council has to resort to using B&B to meet our legal duties.

It is projected that throughout 2023/24, an average of 180 clients per night will be accommodated in B&B/hotels at an average cost of £81 per night. The increase in costs being driven by an increase in homeless presentations, higher hotel prices and longer lengths of stay due to a lack of council tenancies for re-let.

Other homelessness costs include property storage costs which are directly linked to the increased lengths of stay in temporary accommodation, as well as a change in the demographic presenting as homeless, void rent loss and electricity. The service is seeing an increase in very large families requiring 4 or more bedrooms, which are in short supply across all housing providers. Tenders have been evaluated and awarded for the homeless transport contracts which have increased in cost by 40%. Costs have also increased due to the increasing number of families presenting as homeless requiring school transport.

Why is there a lack of available homes?

The lack of available properties is caused by high sustainment of tenancies - those who move into a council house tend to stay there with over 96% of new tenants sustaining their tenancy in excess of one year;  a significant increase in extensive repairs required through damage to properties and an increase in those leaving private lets looking to the council for a more affordable housing option leading to an extremely high demand for council housing in West Lothian.

Why is this position unsustainable?  

Executive councillor for housing, George Paul said: "The imbalance between supply and demand for permanent social rented accommodation continues to be a key challenge in West Lothian. There remains a high number of people applying to the council for permanent housing as well as accommodation required for homeless applicants.

"Not only does lack of affordable housing supply result in significant problems for individuals and families, but the financial implications caused by homelessness are severe and take scarce funding away from other critical homeless prevention and support services.  

"This position is unsustainable for councils if we are ever going to be allowed to make a difference for the local community in West Lothian." The effort and work of our housing professionals to tackle this issue is incredible and they have left no stone unturned in terms of looking for solutions. Ultimately, our hands are tied and councils in Scotland do not have the means to tackle this issue and without significant change that will continue for the foreseeable future.  It's very disappointing that we've not been given a single penny of this Scottish Government funding which would have helped to alleviate this incredibly serious issue."

What is the outlook?

Julie Whitelaw, Interim Head of Housing, Customer and Building Services said: "Unfortunately, we are likely to experience a significant budget pressure for some time to come, and B&B usage will continue to be the largest area of spend and pressure as the large backlog of homeless applicants waiting for permanent accommodation continues to feed increased usage and longer length of stays as well as lack of available bed spaces at an affordable price.

"Demand for homeless services is not expected to fall in any significant way over the next three years as we continue to see the consequences of rising costs of living, increased mortgage costs, higher rent in the private sector and the removal of local connection legislation.

"Over this 3-year period the additional costs to the council are projected to be approximately £5.346 million.

"B&B will remain as the largest cost pressure even though it is predicted to fall from its current position, but usage is still forecast to remain above an average of 140 people per night for the next 2 years unless there is a significant change in either demand and/or the supply of permanent houses for people.

"The cost of procuring B&B rooms is also expected to rise over this period due to inflation. As a result, this means that the service is forecasting significant budget challenges for the next 2 years, assuming the budget remains the same.

"The costs of procuring and delivering other parts of the homeless service are also expected to rise as inflation remains high."