Borough council to consider motion declaring housing emergency as temporary accommodation costs soar

Councillors at Crawley Borough Council will today (21 February) consider a motion declaring a housing emergency in the town.

The proposed declaration is “due to unprecedented temporary accommodation demands”, the local authority said.

It warned that the level of demand for housing is exceeding the supply of available units, both in terms of temporary accommodation, but also more permanent accommodation. “Those in real housing need are having to be placed in accommodation that may not meet their needs, may not even be in the borough and may be for long periods of time. This is not a temporary situation – the prospects are for current trends to continue or worsen.”

Demand for housing has risen to the point of 2,796 applications being submitted for the 243 housing units made available in the last eight months – more than 11 applicants per property. Some 485 households, or 1,224 people, are now living in temporary accommodation in Crawley.

The borough council said it faces “increasingly unsustainable” temporary accommodation costs, which have increased 12-fold from £456,000 in 2018 to 2019 to £5.7m in 2023 to 2024. These costs now account for a third of the council's budget.

Contributing factors cited by Crawley include:

• “the unaffordability of home ownership for an increasing number of people
• a shrinking private rented sector with soaring rents (an 8% increase in the last year) that makes this housing unaffordable for a growing number of people
• the shortage of council and other social housing to meet demand
• water neutrality planning restrictions imposed by Natural England either slowing down or preventing new development
• the presence of four asylum contingency hotels in the town and the decision of the Home Office to disperse those seeking asylum directly into communities without a managed process or proper support in place.”

The council said it had attempted to tackle these pressures using measures including delivery of more than 1,600 affordable homes over the past 10 years, buying additional properties, retrofitting thousands of council homes with water saving devices, and pursuing long leasing opportunities for temporary accommodation to increase supply and reduce costs.

Cllr Michael Jones, Leader of Crawley Borough Council, will be moving the motion, seconded by the Cabinet member for Housing, Cllr Ian Irvine.

Cllr Jones said: “We urgently need help to deal with these pressures and call on the government to increase the Housing Benefit subsidy rate, which is currently frozen at 2011 levels. The cost of temporary accommodation has increased hugely since then.”

The council said the major aim in declaring a housing emergency would be “the drawing of attention to the situation as well as explaining to residents (especially those with acute housing needs) why the situation has arisen, and to seek greater support and action from government who hold many of the key levers needed to address the crisis”.

Harry Rodd