Dartford crises spikes as homeless households and related costs rise sharply
A new report lays bare the rapidly worsening situation with housing in Dartford as costs and homelessness spike in line with most of the country.
A Committee meeting next week includes a report on the problem and makes stark reading, with homeless households placed into temporary and emergency accommodation growing quickly – and new council housebuilding lagging far behind.
It states that “from December 2023 to July 2024, the number of households placed in all types of temporary accommodation increased by 24%” with 474 households placed in temp/emergency housing in 2023/24.
Despite that there are just “25 additional new homes in the Council’s new build programme; 16 of which will be completed by spring 2025”.
The Councils housing register also “currently holds 1459 live applications”.
This ensures ever higher costs to the council and taxpayers with a 21 per cent budget overrun. Much of the increase also falls on central government. Either way, the taxpayer is paying substantial sums with costs rising 62 per cent to £1.7bn nationwide by 2022/23, and homeless numbers have risen sharply since.
Dartford also state “the actual cost of providing temporary accommodation continues to rise, mainly due to increased rental costs. The average cost per placement has risen by 42% since 2021/2022”.
National problems
It’s a picture seen in borough after borough all over the country as the report notes:
“Over the last 12 to 18 months a sharp rise in statutory homelessness has been observed in Dartford, which is very much in line with the national picture.”
The report highlights that London borough’s can’t afford to house people in their own areas due to high housing costs and a lack of social housing, thus look outside. That then sees Dartford and other boroughs unable to afford, and so they look further.
Right to Buy has also seen 120 homes lost between 2016 and 2023.
It’s a row of toppling dominoes such that in recent weeks and months authorities across the UK from Norfolk – where costs have risen 335 per cent in five year – to Yorkshire highlighting the same issues. Southampton for example has seen a 300 per cent increase in three years.
A shortage of truly affordable homes is evident nationwide with few homes currently being built. The latest quarterly housing start numbers are dismal, with a 34 per cent annual fall.
Grant funding from government for council and social homes remains low while the private sector builds little – and often excludes any “affordable” housing.
Funding
Despite this growing crises and ever rising cost to taxpayers central government have yet to commit to any more grant funding for council and/or social housebuilding above levels seen under the previous government. Their manifesto clearly stated they wouldn’t – and so far there’s no sign of any movement on that changing despite the ensuing costs of placing ever more families miles from school, work and family at extremely high cost.
You may often have heard that this government “will build 1.5 million homes”. Well, no. They hope the private sector will build homes via new targets and as a by-product we’ll see more truly affordable homes around social rent levels. Targets and relying on the private sector hasn’t exactly worked for decades hence the current mess.
As an example within Dartford, a major approved development sees just 10 per cent “affordable” housing.
Planning reform may well help but that alone won’t be sufficient. This crises is not going away and it’s highly unlikely the private sector will provide what is needed either in terms of private dwellings or related truly affordable homes. They certainly have a role to play but so does the state.
Industry downturn
Failing to boost public building in the short term will also hamper meeting that 1.5m target in the mid to long term. The construction industry is seeing substantial numbers of firms enter administration as private housebuilding falls sharply – and many of those skills and supply lines won’t simply spring back into life to build homes in a year or two. They’re gone. Lost. Capacity reduced.
Failing to support short term public housebuilding hampers the private sector and ability to build private housing in future. And it sees ever more public money heading to extremely expensive providers of emergency housing. See Greenwich Council now spending millions on hotel costs as an example.
This report is the latest of many to lay starkly highlight that the housing situation continues to deteriorate to the detriment of all while government twiddle their thumbs and maintain previous Tory spending levels – which have clearly failed. Will they change course?
If you compare the 2011 and 2021 census results the population growth in the Dartford Council area was the second highest in England in percentage terms. Only Tower Hamlets was higher. The rise in housing problems has to be a spill over from the problems occurring in the inner London boroughs. If you look at the overall council house waiting lists provided by the ONS over the long term the national figures bob up and down but the rise in the boroughs such as Newham and Lambeth especially are relentless.
As the author says, if you want a step up in construction it will have to involve large scale government spending otherwise it will fail. The one good bit of news is that the banks have very healthy loan to deposit ratios so will have the capacity to lend.