Local Authority Housing Fund
Shropshire Council has been successful in being awarded funding via the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund. This fund was made available in December 2022 to targeted councils to buy housing stock, build new homes, convert existing non-residential properties, and refurbish dilapidated housing or empty homes into accommodation for families.
The funding is to buy 26 properties for guests who have come over on the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and four properties via the Afghan resettlement scheme (who are part of the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) or the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP)) by the end of November 2023. It has been allocated to Shropshire Council to buy homes specifically for Ukrainian and Afghan households either homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Not all councils have been allocated this funding as it's based on a formula relating to housing need. The funding is not being used for asylum seekers.
Currently Shropshire has over 600 Ukrainian guests who have arrived under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, accommodated by 400+ hosts. Hosts in Shropshire have done a wonderful job in opening their doors and supporting Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, but no-one expected the war to go on as long as it has, and so some of the relationships are now breaking down through no fault of either the guests or the hosts.
Ukrainian guests have been extremely proactive in finding new accommodation such as private rent options, but this isn't always available, and sometimes the council has to step in and assist.
The government has been very clear that councils have the same duty to our Ukrainian guests as they do anyone else presenting as homeless, and therefore we have several Ukrainian families now in temporary accommodation to whom we owe a full housing duty. The funding of temporary accommodation for these households also comes from central government funding, not from the Shropshire Council budget. We'll also be using funding from our Housing Revenue Account and from S106 committed funds. The Housing Revenue Account funding can only be used to deliver new council homes. It can't be used for any other council projects, so this investment is not diverting resource from other priorities. Additionally, S106 funding from developers is gathered in specifically for use on delivering new affordable homes for Shropshire, and can't be applied to other projects.
The funding split is as follows:
- An allocation of just over £3.2m under the Local Authority Housing Fund
- S.106 commuted sums investment up to £750k
- Borrowing from the HRA of up to £3.2m (to match-fund the DLUHC grant funding)
The properties funded by this scheme will help the council rehouse Ukrainian and Afghan households initially, but the properties can then be used in the future as general needs stock for Shropshire residents. This funding enables us to increase our housing stock for future use.
Further information can be found here: