Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

Councillor Bibby introduced the report and explained that within the Revenue Budget Monitoring Report 2023/24 (Month 4) reported to Cabinet in September 2023 it was recommended that, as required by the Council’s Finance Procedure Rules, a separate report was to be prepared by Housing and Communities to expand on the reasons for the significant overspend on the homelessness budget and the mitigations being put in place.

Within the Housing Solutions service there were specific budgets for homeless

accommodation settings for ‘interim housing’.  In addition to that budgeted provision

for those locations, including the Homeless Hub, there was a further specific budget for emergency accommodation.  That budget was used when there was no remaining capacity in other budgeted temporary accommodation.  The emergency accommodation used was mostly hotel rooms, within and beyond the boundaries of

Flintshire, together with some use of other forms of holiday lets, such as caravans and apartments.

Options had been developed for consideration to manage the overspend on the homelessness budget which were outlined in the appendix to the report.

The Chief Officer (Housing and Communities) explained that the report had been submitted to Community and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee where the options outlined in the appendix were supported.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the latest financial position in relation to homelessness be noted; and

(b)       That the options outlined in appendix 1 to increase supply and mitigate further overspends on the homelessness budget be supported.