Peter Landman reports on the Council debate over the fallout from the temporary accommodation emergency

A photograph of lose change — Photo: William Warby/Unsplash

Councillor Zulfiqar Ali, the cabinet member for finance and resources, presented a crisis situation arising from the escalating numbers of homeless people and need for temporary accommodation.

There are currently 6,700 homelessness cases, 26 percent more than in the previous year.

He went on to warn that without government help, there could be an overspend on the revenue account of £40 million, at the end of this financial year. Councillor Zulfiqar Ali emphasised that but for these temporary accommodation increases, the Council would be balancing the books.

By law the Council must not incur a deficit, at the end of the financial year or be effectively declared bankrupt, but without help the threat exists and as a result the last full Council meeting agreed to call for an urgent meeting with the government.

The report outlined how there has been a decline in supply of temporary accommodation following the Covid pandemic. He also said some residents in rented accommodation are being evicted from where they live for various reasons. These are the two main causes for the crisis.

The Council is working, he said, on a battery of measures to stem the tide. They are continuing to acquire properties to rent out for temporary accommodation, including purchase of properties in cheaper outer London areas, and acquiring new builds just completed.

They are also continuing to work on homelessness prevention, mainly to reduce the threat landlord evictions.

Meanwhile, across the Council operation director-led expenditure panels have been set up to scrutinise spending requests.

The Council is looking at getting increased immediate income through possible applications to the Government’s Exceptional Financial Support Scheme, and possibly from sales of Council-owned sites not being put to use. For this to work, the Council, needs government co-operation.

At present the sales count as capital receipts, but the outgoing government was considering release of sales to the revenue account for operational use.

For the near future, the Mayor is launching a largescale Transporting Newham for the Future project, with a new target operating model. This involves making better use of the Council’s IT systems through eight programmes.

As a result, a reduction in overall costs are expected through more on line self service provision, and more efficiency.

Nevertheless, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali warned that further cuts might have to be made, but he hoped for support from the new government.

For more information email: Zulfiqar.ali@newham.gov.uk, the Cabinet Member for Finance or Shaban.Mohammed@newham.gov.uk, Cabinet Member for Housing Management.

Break on £13 million for Royal Victoria Dock Bridge

The Council’s plan to build a walkway bridge over the Royal Victoria Dock has been halted by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which sent back the £13 million bridge grant to the Council Cabinet for review.

The committee were not happy that private developers would be undertaking the work, that there was no business plan and that there had been no evaluation of regeneration benefits.

More on Newham’s homelessnes crisis:

Fact file: Newham’s Homelessness Crisis

‘Catastrophic’ homeless numbers says charity

Urgent plea to Starmer over Newham crisis

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