Councillors asked for prefab sites to prevent homelessness

Councillors have been asked to help search for places to site prefabricated modular units for temporary accommodation use to deal with a homelessness crisis in Powys.

A council housing chief has contacted all Powys County Councillors asking them for help find these sites as the council is “interested” in buying or renting them.

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The call was reinforced by the council’s deputy leader Labour’s Cllr Matthew Dorrance at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, July 30.

This was during a discussion on the Annual Governance Statement (AGS), which is an annual legal requirement from the Welsh Government that asks local authorities to demonstrate their “effectiveness of governance arrangements during the financial year.”

Cllr Dorrance said: “It’s clear from this report that we still have significant challenges around homelessness.”

He explained that the council had set itself a “robust challenge” to help people find homes as a “route out of poverty.”

Cllr Dorrance stressed the need to lower the reliance on bed and breakfast accommodation which is a “financial risk” to the council’s “Housing Revenue Account”.

Cllr Dorrance added: “Members will also have received an email from officers just last week calling out for sites to enable us to deliver temporary modular accommodation.

“We still have significant challenge, and the report rightly highlights that we have not delivered on those.

“We are still working to bring down some of those problem areas so that we achieve our ultimate ambition that everyone lives in a secure home.”

The AGS self-assessment said that homelessness in Powys remains “high” and is 20.8 per cent above pre Covid-19 pandemic levels from 2019/2020.

The report said that statutory homeless numbers have gone up from 295 at the end of March 2023, to 309 by the end of March 2024.

Cabinet went on to agree the AGS and self-assessment.

The email to councillors received was sent out by the director of economic development and growth, Diane Reynolds.

She has taken over the housing brief in a shake up and expansion of the councillors senior staff.

Ms Reynolds said: “In order to help reduce the high cost to the council of using privately owned bed-and-breakfast or Airbnb type accommodation for homeless households, the council is actively looking for brownfield sites which could be used to accommodate interim modular accommodation.

“Any such sites would need to be within or close to a market town, so that homeless households are able to have full access to services and community facilities.”

“The council would be interested in buying or renting such sites, depending on the nature of the site and its end use.

“The type of temporary accommodation used would be in the former of factory built, self-contained units, approximately the size of shipping container.

“These would be delivered to the site by lorry.”

She explained that this type of accommodation would still require planning permission.

Using modular units to deal with homelessness issues was first discussed at a meeting of the council’s Economy, Residents and Communities last December.

Councillors at that meeting were told it cost Powys £1.42 million to deal with the homelessness issue last year.