Council’s plan to target homeless individuals will save £3.2 million

Alec Doyle – Local democracy reporter

Plans to work with outside partners to target homeless individuals could save a council around £3.2 million over the next three years.

Flintshire County Council is poised to become the first in North Wales to partner with D2 Propco – a specialist temporary accommodation provider for the homeless.

Founded in 2017, D2 Propco is already working with a 10 local authorities in South and Mid Wales and one in England to help address the homelessness epidemic. It purchases empty properties and turn them into safe places for people to stay.

Accommodation

Last year Flintshire County Council spent almost £5.4m on homelessness provision. Just over £5m of that was spent on temporary and emergency accommodation including hotels, bed and breakfasts (B&B’s), caravans and other forms of holiday accommodation.

Around 58% of Flintshire’s homeless were put up in B&Bs, compared with the Welsh average of 33%.

Aston Councillor Helen Brown told Tuesday’s meeting of Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet that working with D2 Propco could deliver significant savings while also delivering improved help for those in crisis.

Bed spaces

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities – who is also Deputy Leader of the Council – said: “Around 80% of Flintshire’s homeless population are single individuals.

“This proposal would deliver 40 bed spaces for single occupancy and a further 10 for families. Properties would have 24-7 on-call services and security and D2 Propco could start working very quickly.

They already provide 350 bed spaces across South and Mid Wales and Flintshire would be the first council in North Wales to work with them.”

According to estimates by Flintshire County Council’s Housing and Communities Department, the partnership would save just over £1m per year – one small step towards helping the council bridge its projected £37.7m budget shortfall for 2025/26.

Flintshire would still operate its own homelessness accommodation but this would allow the council, which mostly owns family-sized properties – to focus on homeless groups while D2 Propco prioritises individuals.

Flintshire still has plans to acquire 17 properties to increase its internal capacity to deal with homelessness cases.

Vacant properties

D2 Propco meanwhile would look to buy up vacant properties across the county, creating spaces where parents can remain close to their children and keeping people near to the communities and families they know.

“We see this as a medium-term solution that can be implemented quickly,” said Chief Officer Housing and Communities Officer Vicky Clark.

“We envision it running over three to five years. After much research this offers a fully-formed solution that has been implemented elsewhere.

The partnership would see vecant properties acrosss Flintshire purchased and renovated by D2 Propco to be used as temporary homes.

“This arrangement will help people to remain close to their support networks,” said Cllr Brown. “Homelessness provision has been concentrated on the Deeside strip in the last few years.

“Under the new scheme people from Holywell, Mold or other parts of the county will not feel displaced as they will be able to remain closer to their friends and family.”

The plan to launch the new partnership was welcomed by the Cabinet.

“The scrutiny comittee was robust on this but even its opponents admitted it was better than the current situation,” said Holywell West Cllr Paul Johnson, Cabinet Member for Finance and Social Value.