Council leader highlights homelessness as major challenge

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

The leader of a Welsh council said levels of homelessness in her county are the highest they have been in years.

In an interview about some of the challenges Vale of Glamorgan Council faces, the leader of the council, Cllr Lis Burnett, said using a hotel to house people is something the local authority hasn’t had to do for more than 10 years.

Earlier this year, the council decided that it would have to extend its use of The Holiday Inn at Cardiff Airport to temporarily house homeless people.

It was reported in October, 2024 that there were 6,930 people on Vale of Glamorgan Council’s housing waiting list.

At that time, there were also 204 households recorded as being homeless.

Waiting list

The pressure on the council’s housing waiting list has increased since earlier in the year. In February, there were 6,200 people on the housing waiting list.

However, Cllr Burnett insisted that Vale of Glamorgan is not the only place in Wales which is facing this pressure.

When asked if the level of homelessness that the Vale of Glamorgan is currently experiencing is the highest she had seen during her time at the council, Cllr Burnett said: “Yes.

“Absolutely, but this is not unusual right across Wales in that there have been huge pressures and quite a lot of private landlords have decided to move out of the private rented sector, but also… private rent has gone up hugely and actually that has pushed a lot of people into not being able to afford it.

“It is not a happy place for a lot of families and I think that, again, if we go back full circle around to our corporate plan that is why one of our proposed areas of concern is to support those who need our help and support and historically that might have meant people in terms of social care, but actually it also means people in terms of homelessness and that is why we will go forward with the aim of building our own properties.”

Refugees

Another difficult issue the council leader said she has had to contend with this year was the fallout from the development of Heol Croeso – a temporary site made up of 90 portable homes for Ukrainian refugees and homeless families from the Vale – was huge.

The temporary housing estate, on the site of the former Eagleswell Primary School in Llantwit Major, was opposed by a number of residents who were not happy that the plans were initially pushed through using special planning powers called permitted development rights.

Approval of a scheme through permitted development rights is usually done in an emergency and means the council’s planning committee doesn’t have a say on whether or not it can go ahead.

In the case of Heol Croeso, it lasted for 12 months from the date of work commencing on the development, but planning committee approval was eventually acquired for the site to remain in place for a minimum of five more years.

There are still residents who are unhappy with the scheme and a campaign group has raised enough funds to take legal action against the local authority.

Vitriol

Cllr Burnett said: “If you saw some of the vitriol, and I am used to it, but if saw some of this stuff and some of the stuff that has been put online… when you see that people have been made ill by the abuse that they have suffered and actually all we did was deliver what we said in there [placard] and when we took that to the consultation, we didn’t have any kick-back.”

When we spoke with people opposed to the site earlier this year, they said that their objection isn’t towards refugees or those in need of a home.

Their main concerns include the design of the homes; the impact it will have on residents living nearby, with many of the portable homes just metres away from some peoples’ gardens; and how the plans were initially pushed through without needing planning committee approval.

Vale of Glamorgan Council hopes Heol Croeso will reduce the pressure that it is facing in terms of demand for temporary accommodation.

When asked about some of the homeless families in the Vale of Glamorgan who have to live in a hostel or a hotel, Cllr Burnett said: “They [families in hotels] get a room they get a bathroom, they have got no cooking facilities whatsoever.

“If you have got children, that is absolutely no life at all and we had to get those people out of there.”

Speaking about Heol Croeso and tackling homelessness more generally, She added: “We are doing a whole range of things, so I am really pleased with what we have delivered.

“It is just a shame that it became so negative and actually people were made ill.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council’s draft corporate plan is a five year plan that outlines what the council’s priorities will be for the area from 2025 to 2030.

Scrutiny 

It has come under scrutiny from some opposition councillors who said it lacks clarity and detail in certain areas, but Cllr Burnett called the draft corporate plan “incredibly brave” and one of the positive pieces of work the council can look back on this year.

Other highlights according to the leader include the work that the council carries out that is not in its remit.

As an example, Cllr Burnett referenced Broad Street clinic and the plans to redevelop it.

“Most people think it is derelict,” she said. “It’s not. It is still a working clinic.

“That is a health facility and… it is not up on the high priority list for the health board in terms of what they are trying to do, so we work with them and we are rebuilding that as part of a development that will take place down there called Western Gateway.”

Council cabinet members agreed to endorse the project to regenerate Barry town centre in 2021 and contractors were appointed to develop plans this year.

The project will involve redeveloping the Gladstone Road Bridge Compound site into a new health centre and the Broad Street Clinic site into affordable apartments.

“I understand it will be coming to planning sometime around the end of the year, early next year,” said Cllr Burnett.

“We are having similar conversations with the health board about Eagleswell.

“It has been our long term aim to have a health facility on that site, so we are already having conversations with them about how that might work.

“If they don’t have the capacity now, shall we use our project management capacity to get some feasibility work done to move that one? and yes we have talked to them about that.

“I have got a conversation… with Welsh Government about… our health plans where we can influence health outcomes for the people of the Vale of Glamorgan, so we work outside our remit.

“We work very closely with people whose remit it is to try and get them to act.

“Health isn’t our remit, transport isn’t our remit, but we work with people to try and get an impact on behalf of the local population and that is why those things are included in our corporate plan in terms of what we want to deliver for the people of the Vale.

“Can we do it? Who knows? We hope we can, we think we can in terms of what we have delivered historically and I think with the confirmation of the funding for levelling up and long term plan for towns, that is a huge amount of work to take forward as well and we are quite confident we can deal with that too.”

Budget gap

Vale of Glamorgan Council said in October that it expected to face a budget gap of £9.39m.

In November, the council announced that it will have to save £14m in 2025/26. In this current financial year, it had to close a £7m gap.

The council recently found out that it would receive a 3.4% increase on last year’s funding from the Welsh Government for 2025/26.

Cllr Burnett said the news was “welcome”, but cautioned that “this alone will not solve the problem” and added that significant savings will be needed to balance the books.

On the whole, Cllr Burnett was positive about the UK Government’s October budget announcement.

The council leader said: “We are still dealing with a lot of inflation in terms of pay and in terms of cost of services and products, so… if we didn’t have the budget from UK Government that has come out we really would have been in a difficult position.

“We are not talking section 114 (bankruptcy) like some councils… but a very difficult position in terms of the conversations we had been having internally but also the conversations with the general public.”

When Vale of Glamorgan Council had budget gaps to close in previous years, it had to make cuts and changes to a number of its service to save money.

In the past, residents have also seen new charges introduced for some services and increased charges for others.

Whilst it is too early at this stage to say exactly what changes the council is considering this year, Cllr Burnett was able to give us some idea of what to expect.

She said: “We try to be innovative, to find new ways of delivering services, but I think as always happens we have to look at the services we deliver and say ‘well, can we do them more effectively?’

“Normally, it means if we charge for services they will go up by the rate of inflation.”

As part of its budget for 2024/25, Vale of Glamorgan Council voted through a number of changes, including increased parking fees, reducing the number of bins across the county and increasing council tax by 6.7%.

Cllr Bunrett said: “We will look at ways in which we can both improve services and make them more cost-effective, but in a lot of ways the only answer is an increase in funding.”

Council tax

The council leader added that the local authority will also have to consider raising council tax.

On what the council might look to prioritise with its funding, Cllr Burnett added: – “If you look at the draft corporate plan, you can see what we are going to be prioritising. We are going to be prioritising education, social care [and] housing.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council is not the only local authority in Wales, or indeed the UK, that has been faced with the task of having to close multi-million pound budget gaps year on year.

On her concerns about the finances of Welsh councils, Cllr Burnett said: “Absolutely, it is the main topic of conversation whenever we [council leaders] are talking and you can’t ignore the fact that we have had 14 years of cuts to our budgets.

“Every single council in Wales is in difficulties and I am constantly talking to other people about how they are going to cope with X Y or Z.

“Are there other things we can work together on? We work very closely on a lot of stuff.

“We have shared services, we have got regulatory services, we have got audit services, a whole range of things that we do.”

Across the border in England, some councils have faced the prospect of having to serve a section 114 notice.

A section 114 notice is served by a council when it is unable to balance its budget and means that it is effectively declaring itself bankrupt.

We asked Cllr Burnett for her thoughts on whether we could see a Welsh council serving a section 114 notice if things continue on the same financial trajectory over the next few years.

She said: “Conversations I have had are that people were preparing for the worst, but I think that the view in Wales is that once you take that step, the reality of serving a 114 notice means that virtually your council is taken out of your hands and you don’t have any choices about what services you deliver.

“Whereas we are incredibly proud of our libraries, not only for the services that they provide, but for the fact that they are centres for all sorts of activities… if you went to 114, that would all go because the vast majority of it is not statutory.

“You have to take everything that is not statutory – Peer Pavilion would probably close, Art Central [in Barry] would probably close.

“If you actually looked at the reality of what a 114 notice would mean, you just don’t go there.

“[It is] absolutely chilling.”

Budget challenges

Despite the budget challenges she knows the council has on the horizon, Cllr Burnett said there were reasons to be optimistic about the future.

Following the UK Government’s October budget, Vale of Glamorgan Council confirmed that Barry would receive £20m in long term plan for towns funding.

Funding worth £19m has also been confirmed for the regeneration of the Mole at Barry Waterfront.

Cllr Burnett said: “With these pots of money which we have been fortunate to get, we are immediately starting work on the marina, on the Docks Office, on the water sports centre, which will make a big difference to Barry and then when the new prospectus comes through for the long term plan for towns we can sit down with the people of Barry and say ‘okay, what does success look like for you? how can we work with you?’

A partnership made up of various stakeholders, which is being managed by Vale of Glamorgan Council, will receive the £20m long term plan for towns funding.

The money will go towards things like regenerating the high street in Barry town centre, tackling anti-social behaviour and improving connectivity.

Cllr Burnett added: “As soon as we get a new prospectus in from UK Government, then we will hit the accelerator then. We will get that going as well.

“Actually, where we are now to looking forward with a degree of optimism into the new year, I think is actually quite marked, but we have just got to get through this bit.”