Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) attached

The report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) explained how the budget proposals for the Directorate had been developed.

The 2022/23 budget process saw the Council develop savings and efficiency plans of over £42.3m  over the three years to 2025/26 of which there were savings options of £4.646m for the Homelessness directorate.  The provisional financial settlement announced on19 December 2022 reflected a change in government policy in relation to funding inflation and social care pressures. This had given the opportunity to review the quantum and phasing of savings and it was now proposed that options of £36.2m were progressed, of which £4.646m were attributable to the Homelessness directorate.

The Homelessness budget oversaw a gross budget of £71.959m, and a net budget of £28.435mm.  The biggest proportion of the budget was spent on Temporary Accommodation, in particular B&B and Dispersed. The Net Homelessness Budget had increased from £15.1m in 2018/19, an increase of £13.3m per annum to reflect the increase in Temporary Accommodation numbers as well as investment into Prevention.

There were no savings options proposed for Homelessness which would result in a reduction in service.  Over the medium term the savings would be linked to the ambition to reduce numbers in Temporary Accommodation through significant reductions in B&B placements and increased prevention during 2023/26.  However, there were specific demand and inflation pressures facing the Homelessness Budgets. Government refugee and asylum schemes were placing pressure on Manchester temporary accommodation market, driving up cost, resulting in a £4m fee uplift requirement for Homeless Temporary Accommodation and this pressure had been reflected in the Medium Term Financial Plan with £4m of growth proposed for Homelessness in 2023/24.  Resources of up to £1.5m held within the Homelessness reserve would be set aside and would be available for investment in supporting the potential pressures in Homelessness.

The Homelessness Service were working with private sector landlords to try and reduce the number of people who were evicted, with a targeted communications campaign to encourage people to seek advice and support early, prior to eviction.

Of the savings required £3.25m could be achieved over the 3 year period in B&B Accommodation schemes as a result of a combination of reductions made for Transformation and changes in Allocation’s procedure which would reduce the number of families in B&B, as residents were supported to remain in current accommodation.  A further £1.172m of demand reductions would be delivered in Dispersed Accommodation.  This was linked to Transformation and an increase in the number of Dispersed Accommodation properties which were managed by a Registered Provider to reduce the Housing Subsidy loss incurred by the Council in providing this service.  The remaining £224k of proposed savings were linked to an increase in vacancy factor of 2% to 5.5% for Homelessness, this reflected the ongoing difficulties in recruitment and brought the vacancy factor in line with existing and expected levels. It was proposed that this saving would be delivered in 2024/25 as the underspend in mainstream staffing budgets in 2023/24 will be retained to fund the new posts created to support the Transformation work and staffing levels would be reviewed as part of the ongoing Transformation work.

It was noted that the budget report had also been considered at a recent meeting of the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee and the committee had endorsed the proposals in the report (Minute CESC/23/12).

Councillor Leech queried whether having no planned contingency for demand pressures on the service from next year was likely to lead to potential problems in future years.

Decision

The Executive approve the Directorate budget proposals as set out in the report.