The borough has long had the highest number of people living in temporary accommodation in London, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

Newham Council wants to make it “harder for people” to claim temporary accommodation, a senior official has said.

Council leaders agreed last month to house more families facing homelessness outside of the borough. The new policy aims at cutting the cost of temporary accommodation, which is fuelling the council’s financial crisis.

Speaking to councillors on Tuesday (25th), the council’s corporate director of housing Paul Kitson said the policy also aims to make it “easier for the council to say no” to people seeking help.

He said: “There’s a balance to be struck here about a moral duty and humanity but also making sure that the council is not sunk by taking on duty where it doesn’t need to.”

Councils across the country are struggling with an increase in demand for temporary accommodation and the rising costs of providing it.

By law they have to house vulnerable people who face becoming homeless.

Newham Council says it currently houses around 7,000 families in temporary accommodation, the highest in London. It says the costs of this account for £100million of its estimated £115m funding shortfall by 2028.

Councillors discussed the council’s strategy to deal with this at an overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday. It includes the council’s new placements policy, which will see more families placed outside the borough.

Under the policy, only those families with health or social care needs tied to Newham will be housed in the borough or within 30 minutes by public transport.

Families with children studying for GCSEs or A-Levels and where one or more person is in work could be housed up to 90 minutes away. Anyone else could be housed even further away than that.

Speaking to the committee, Kitson said the new policy was aimed at making the criteria “clearer” but also “harder for people”.

He said it “really just refreshed and re-confirmed in a simpler way about the kinds of people that we will have an obligation to house within Newham or 30 minutes, and then within 90 minutes or more than 90 minutes.

“We make it easier for people to understand – but we’re also making it harder for people and therefore easier for the council to say no, we can’t accept your [housing] duty.”

However, Green Party councillor Danny Keeling said the council should put more effort into preventing people becoming homeless. They said, without this, the council could go bankrupt.

Cllr Keeling said: “Maybe we need to be taking some different actions to actually try and counteract it, and maybe a lot more preventative action.

“I just don’t know when is enough temporary accommodation, and at what point do we say enough is enough? Because it just never ends now, to the point that we will go bankrupt.”

Kitson said the council has had some success in preventing more people becoming homeless. The council’s strategy involves finding long-term private rented homes for families rather than housing them in hotels, bed and breakfast or expensive nightly rented accommodation.

However, he said the continually increasing demand meant it also had to focus on cutting temporary accommodation costs.

Kitson said: “We now do not have families in hotel accommodation for very long at all.

“We’re top three in terms of London boroughs in the numbers of homeless prevention and relief.

“Despite all of that, because of the underlying causes of homelessness and particularly in east London – and more particularly the housing crisis and the affordability problem – we’re seeing an increased demand for people wanting to seek support from the council.”

He added the strategy aims to “reduce our costs and produce longer term settled accommodation for our residents”.

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