Council to spend extra £300,000 creating homeless flats as costs soar

Extra cash is needed to create new temporary flats for homeless people in East Renfrewshire after the estimated cost rose.

An additional almost £300,000 will be spent on developing Overlee House in Clarkston after council officials revealed that the project’s predicted price had increased.

The scheme is hoped to help cut the council’s “significant” spending on hotels and B&Bs as emergency accommodation, which hit around £1.25m in 2023/24.

The cost rise has been attributed to inflation in the construction industry and “legislative requirements” like sprinkler systems.

The project, which will see ten new bed spaces across five flats, is now expected to cost £850,000 rather than the £553,000 previously budgeted. The flats should be available by December this year.

Councillors approved the extra cash at a meeting last month. They also agreed to spend another £61,000 on upgrading the council’s community safety response centre, which provides a telecare call handling service for nearly 3,000 clients and handles the council’s out of hours calls for homelessness, anti-social behaviour and housing repairs.

Work on the 24/7 centre, which also monitors CCTV, had been costed in 2019 but was paused due to the covid pandemic. It is seen as a priority as staff have raised “several health and safety issues” and “concerns about the working environment”.

East Renfrewshire Council declared a housing emergency in September last year due to high levels of homelessness and a lack of available accommodation.

At the time, 350 households were waiting for an offer of accommodation while homeless applications jumped by 53% since 2018 — compared to 10% nationally.

Almost 200 households were in temporary accommodation, including hotels and B&Bs, and a £1.5m overspend, against a budget of £545,000, is forecast for 2024/25.

Scotland’s housing regulator also said East Renfrewshire is one of eight councils across the country at risk of systemic failure over the delivery of homelessness services due to the “unsuitable” use of hotels and B&Bs.

Officials said work at Overlee House would increase the temporary accommodation available to the council and reduce breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order.

They added the project is “an opportunity to spend to save” as the “increase in available temporary accommodation will reduce the amount that the council spends on hotel accommodation”.

The increased costs have been “driven by the time having elapsed since the project was originally priced for and included in the capital programme”.

Officials reported the building must be “designed and constructed in such a way that, in the event of an outbreak of fire within the building, fire growth will be inhibited by the operation of an automatic fire suppression system”.

Rent for council-owned temporary accommodation can be fully recovered from housing benefits, whereas around 12% is recoverable from hotel and B&B charges.

Officials said for each extra unit at Overlee House, a revenue benefit of £40,000 via reduced reliance on hotels and B&Bs is expected.

Cllr Gordon Wallace, Conservative, asked who would be prioritised when the new accommodation is available.

He said: “We have heard of horrific stories that are coming from the hotel accommodation, some dreadful conditions that families are having to endure, but also single women, what they are having to endure.

“It’s just to make sure we have sufficient strength in our arm if you like to be able to prioritise such individuals.”

An official said those who have “accessibility issues or health-related conditions” and “particularly families with children” would generally be a priority when moving people out of hotels and B&Bs.