Peter Landman provides a roundup of the state of play as Newham Council battles to survive a catastrophic financial and housing crisis


The Council Cabinet met on 15 October and the full Council on 21 October to deal with the crisis caused by a projected overspend in the budget of £47 million, made up of £31 million extra spending on temporary accommodation and £16 million on social care.
Councillors were given some bleak statistics – homelessness is up by 26 percent and tenant evictions are the highest of any London borough.
And to balance the books, the Council plans to cut services because by law it must not be in deficit at the end of a financial year. If it is, it will have to face virtual bankruptcy with permission only to provide statutory services.
In the meantime, the Council has applied for urgent help from the Government Emergency Fund.
To tackle the homelessness crisis, the Council has set up a Homelessness Prevention Advice Service, with advisory officers conducting “last ditch” talks with landlords to avoid planned evictions.
The Council is also trying to reduce the cost of overnight temporary accommodation in local hotels. It has negotiated down the cost to £90 per night. Also the Council is making use of opportunities to get cheaper accommodation outside of the Borough.
The Council is also buying up suitable accommodation at lower than market rates. Acquisitions have been mainly through “getting in” with purchase of freeholds in new developments, including out of Newham, at reduced cost. Then the Council brings in a management company to manage rented accommodation for homeless people.
Accommodation organised in this way has to be within one hour by public transport from Newham.
Cuts in Council services
The programme of savings outlined in the Budget Monitoring Report presented to Cabinet on 15 October underpin a proposed Medium Term Financial Strategy up to the years 2027/8.
Three savings tranches have more than a million pounds in them. The Council will get more money from a 20 per cent increase in Council fees and charges, excluding parking which will bring in £5 million.
A further £2.7 million saving is expected through more adult social care users adopting independent living and £1.7 million will be saved by ending costly special placements for adolescents in difficult situations.
The Council is also ending production of the Newham Mag, “We are Newham”, there will be no holiday lights on display for the Christmas or Eid holidays and there will be no more free tea, coffee and biscuits for Council staff and councillors at their meetings.
The Council plans to cut staff overtime and reduce the use of agency staff in its work. Although the overspending projection for 2027/2028 is a whopping £175 million; the savings set out in the strategy report will cover around £70 million.
At the Council meeting Councillor Sarah Ruiz, Deputy Mayor, spoke about the hardships for refugee mothers with young children in hotel rooms without proper cooking facilities.
She said the charity the Magpie Project is taking this up. The project is launching a petition. For further information contact Sarah.Ruiz@ newham.gov.uk
The Council meeting agreed to set up an urgent task force over the crisis as demanded in a motion from Councillor John Gray.
Council is aware of government initiatives on new builds; and prohibition the landlord no evictions, but it will take time for these actions to become effective. For information email: Zulfiqar.Ali@ newham.gov.uk
Council pledges to protect rubbish collection, youth zones, parks and children centres
The Council has been carrying out a borough-wide consultation with residents over the cuts and has indicated that it will not impose initial plans to alter, or reduce allocations to parks service, youth empowerment and youth zones, or to children’s’ centres, and the extracurricular education budget. However, the full details will only become clearer once the current consultation with residents ends in November.
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