The Chief Officer, Finance Performance and Change presented a report seeking approval from Cabinet to suspend the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs) in order to secure temporary accommodation for homelessness cases, to meet the Council’s statutory housing duty.

The Chief Officer, Finance Performance and Change provided the background to the issue including that in October 2022, a new category of priority needs came into force and under this category, a person who was homeless was to be provided with temporary accommodation. These changes significantly increased the demand for temporary accommodation. In March 2020 there were 83 households in temporary accommodation, whereas by the middle of February 2023 those numbers had increased to 253 households. To meet this increased requirement, the Council was using a range of different settings as outlined in the report. The providers tended to be small businesses or individual entities, which had resulted in the long term procurement of this service being quite challenging. To enable the continuation of the current arrangements, a further service level agreement for 12 months was proposed with existing accommodation providers. A new Homelessness Strategy, Housing Prospectus and a Rapid Rehousing Transitional Plan would be presented to Cabinet shortly, which would outline proposals to reduce the level of temporary accommodation used and would look to expand on the existing accommodation and housing related support projects and also to work with private landlords to provide additional accommodation where possible, and also to work in partnership with other statutory and the third sector organisations to ensure that housing related support for households was maintained and expanded where needs identified a gap in provision.

The Cabinet Member for Future Generations explained that they had discussed the housing crisis at length and it was getting more difficult to find accommodation and acknowledged that the systems in place did not meet his expectations but were a product of very difficult circumstances. This report represented a sticking plaster however they were looking for a longer term solution including a procurement framework to work more effectively with owners of holiday homes and Airbnbs. He thanked officers for their hard work and reassured Cabinet that they were looking for longer term solutions and different ways to mitigate the crisis.

The Deputy Leader said she was more reassured having listened to the Cabinet Member. She had concerns regarding the social value of the spend particularly in relation to private landlords. They had to monitor RSLs closely as they were there to deliver. She asked for reassurance about challenge available in relation to RSLs. The Chief Officer, Finance, Performance and Change replied that they worked closely with RSLs and private landlords across Bridgend and that the need had developed significantly in last 3 years.

The Leader added that context was everything and they all supported the

WG approach but were unable to create additional accommodation overnight. It was sobering to see the number of people in temporary accommodation. He thanked the team for their commitment to secure accommodation for people with nowhere else to go. 

RESOLVED:        Cabinet:

 · Suspended the relevant parts of the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules with regards to the requirement to tender for a contract and delegated to the Group Manager – Housing to enter into Service Level Agreements with accommodation providers for a period of ‘up to’ 12 months, in order to continue the provision of additional temporary accommodation, as necessary to meet BCBC’s statutory duties.

· Delegated authority to the Group Manager - Housing to approve the final terms of the Service Level Agreements on behalf of the Council and to arrange execution of the agreements on behalf of the Council.