Report of Director of Communities to be circulated
Minutes:
The Scrutiny Board received a presentation from the Director of Community Services regarding the Council’s Policy in relation to Temporary Accommodation.
The Board were informed that the Council held a housing register of all applicants that wished to access social housing in the borough who had a defined housing need as per the Allocation’s Policy. Housing applications were assessed against that Policy and the priority banding subsequently allocated. Social Housing Landlords also used the Council’s web-based platform to advertise their available social homes.
The Council had a team of Homelessness Prevention Officers who worked with households who were homeless or had been threatened with homelessness to either help them remain in their current home or secure them alternative housing. The Council also had a team of Move on Support Officers who worked with households that are placed into Temporary Accommodation (TA). They would create individualised moves or support plans for households and help them to move on into their own accommodation as soon as possible.
The council had a homelessness strategy team who ensured that the authority had a robust homelessness strategy and delivery plan in place. They would use key data from a local, regional and national level taking into account legislation and horizon scan for upcoming changes in legislation that could impact upon operational service delivery. They were also responsible for securing any additional grant funding that might be available to assist homelessness households. This includes commissioning of relevant services and monitoring impact/service delivery.
There was a team of rough sleeping outreach workers who worked with the Borough’s most intrenched rough sleepers to help connect them into services who could help and support them. The aim being to help prevent and/or reduce rough sleeping altogether wherever possible.
Oldham had struggled significantly with homelessness over the last few years, as had many authorities across the country. 2023/24 saw the numbers of households in TA increase from 394 to 614. In September 2024 there was a peak in households residing in TA, with numbers standing at 722 at the end of the month.? At the end of Quarter 3 in 2024/25 (31st December 2024), there were 97 households placed in TA and 204 moved out. This was the first positive net change reported since June 2021. Further improvements in the position had been seen since, although the rate of reduction has slowed significantly during 2025/26.
As of the end of November 2025, numbers had reduced substantially, with 551 households residing in TA? - the lowest rate since December 2023. The cost of TA presented a significant challenge to the authority:
a. In 2024/25, the expenditure was £11million on temporary accommodation
b. For 2025/26, this was projected to have decreased to £8.7million
The numbers on the Housing Register remained at extremely high levels. A recent data-cleansing exercise has assisted in bringing the number of households on the register down to 6181. However, the number of new households registering for housing is around 270 every month.The number of social homes becoming available averages 64 per month.
Larger properties were extremely rare. There were 499 households on the register with a four-bed need. There have only been two four-bed properties that had become available in the last 12 months. There were 123 households with a five-bed need. There has not been a five-bed property available since July 2021.
The Improvements made so far (and the Council’s ongoing plan), were based on three key pillars:
a. Improve our prevention offer, to reduce the number of people coming into TA
b. Working more intensively with those in TA on improving their situation and sourcing accommodation for them to move on to, to reduce the length of their stay
c. Working to bring online better quality, and less costly TA
To achieve this, the Council had:
· Invested in expanding the capacity of the Housing Options service, to ensure that we are able to spend more time working with individuals and families.
· Reviewed a range of policies and procedures, to ensure we are making best use of our available housing stock.
· Improved our partnerships with providers, through the reinstatement of the Strategic Housing Partnership.
· Instigated a series of different initiatives aimed at giving us more options for where we house people, both as TA, and more permanently.
Resolved:
That the presentation on Temporary Accommodation be endorsed.