Suffolk council leaders among 119 across the UK calling for help on 'homelessness crisis'
The leaders of Ipswich, East Suffolk and West Suffolk have signed a joint letter to the chancellor
Last updated 6th Nov 2023
The leaders of three Suffolk district councils are among authorities across the UK to sign a joint letter to the Chancellor, calling for more support to tackle homelessness.
The calls follow on from a summit held last week (Tuesday, 31 October), hosted by the District Councils’ Network.
Following the summit, 119 council leaders — out of the 158 who attended — have signed a letter addressed to Jeremy Hunt, calling for additional funding for homelessness prevention and an increase to Local Housing Allowance payments.
The leaders of East Suffolk Council, West Suffolk Council and Ipswich Borough Council were among those to sign.
In the 2022-23 financial year 336 households were classed as homeless in Ipswich alone, with 900 at risk of homelessness within 56 days.
In their letter, council leaders have asked Mr Hunt to take several concrete measures. These include:
- A meeting with the chancellor ahead of the autumn statement.
- An increase in Local Housing Allowance rates to a level which covers at least 30 per cent of local market rent.
- An additional £100m for Discretionary Housing Payments in 2023-24 and an additional £200m in 2024-25.
- A £150m top-up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant for 2024-25.
Council leaders also called on Mr Hunt to:
- Review the housing benefit subsidy rate cap homelessness placements.
- Develop a policy to stimulate retention and supply in the privately rented sector
- Give councils the long-term funding, flexibility and certainty needed to increase the supply of social housing.
Councillor Hannah Dalton, the District Councils’ Network housing spokesperson, said: “The fact that 119 council leaders from all political groups have joined up to demand urgent action from the chancellor on homelessness demonstrates that we are in an emergency situation, right across the country.
“Councils simply do not have the money to cope with this surge of demand for temporary accommodation and without action from Jeremy Hunt they will have no option but to cut services. Such is the scale of the problem that some councils will find themselves effectively bankrupt.
“Unless action is taken in the Autumn Statement, society’s most vulnerable people will continue to be hit hardest — the lifeline that their councils offer them will collapse and there will be a knock-on impact on other public services, including the NHS.
“Funding councils’ work properly will prevent homelessness now, easing the need for public services like the NHS to spend huge amounts dealing with the consequences of homelessness in future.”