Councillors approve £15.5m temporary accommodation contract amid housing crisis

Councillors have approved a temporary accommodation contract valued at up to £15.5m to help support homeless people, including homeless young people.

It marks a reopening of the ‘Supported Lodgings’ category of the council’s system to procure temporary accommodation.

The contract will bring 14 suppliers on board to help those who need ‘additional support on site’ to manage a tenancy after moving from care or other types of homeless housing.

It will run for up to eight years, with an estimated annual value of £1.936m.

Five companies were brought on to the tender to supply only accommodation, while another eight were brought on to supply both support and accommodation.

One, Rock Trust, was brought on the contract to provide support, but not accommodation.

According to a report before councillors on Tuesday, as of November 2025, the council’s purchasing system for temporary accommodation spent £40.5m per year.

This includes procurement of private rental accommodation, home share and shared houses, contracts for homeless accommodation with support, and a range of other requirements.

Alongside the contracts, the council budget approved in March included capital investment worth £581m to increase the amount of council-owned temporary accommodation over five years.

It all comes as the council continues to work on a homelessness crisis in the city, which sees large numbers of people presenting to it as homeless turned away due to a lack of capacity.

In addition, the council is now a year into a freeze of council housing allocations, which was put in place to allow existing housing stock to be used for temporary accommodation where possible.