The demand for valuable council services housing the homeless has risen dramatically, in Lambeth and across London, putting the council’s budgets under serious pressure and meaning huge cuts must be made to other valuable local services.
Cllr Pete Elliott, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “We are pleased that the Government has recognised the desperate need to tackle the housing crisis in Lambeth.
“In Lambeth 4,100 homeless households are now living in expensive temporary accommodation, which should be a last resort. The high cost of this housing, the long-term national failure to build the new social housing we desperately need and Government failures to update funding levels have driven this crisis.”
Local services have faced relentless cuts for the past 16 years as government funding shrank by 30 per cent. Now, Lambeth faces a further £93million black hole in its finances, as demand for services such as housing homeless families has gone up dramatically without funding to match.
The council will use the new funding, which is worth £3million this year and £3.6million next year, to tackle the temporary accommodation crisis in four main ways. That includes extra services to help families find stable long-term housing options, bringing more council owned properties into use, tackling fraudulent claims diverting support from those with most need and boosting homelessness prevention work.
Lambeth Council is running a campaign – Services Worth Fighting For – to highlight the value of the services it provides and to demand investment from central government to reverse devastating austerity.
Cllr Michael Chessum, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Economy, Cost of Living and Empowered Communities, said: “Last week, we launched Services Worth Fighting For, our campaign to defend our local services. In delivering additional funding, the Government has acknowledged that there is a structural problem – but this new money is a drop in the ocean compared to what we need.
‘The Temporary Accommodation crisis costs Lambeth more than £100m a year. The Council will campaign to reverse the causes of this situation.”
Local people are being invited to have their say and outline the impact of the cuts on their lives in a survey and join the campaign at a public launch meeting on October 15. For full information visit haveyoursay.lambeth.gov.uk.
