London council on the brink of bankruptcy to house homeless in empty office blocks
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A London council on the verge of bankruptcy will house homeless families in converted office blocks to save millions of pounds. Havering Council has approved plans for empty office buildings to be transformed so they can be used as temporary accommodation and help tackle the housing crisis in the borough.
Havering’s cabinet has agreed to enter a 10-year lease for an office building named Eastgate House in Basildon, which will provide 34 homes by February 2026 if it gets planning consent. The move means households will be moved out of “high cost” hotels and will save the council £1.8million plus £5.3million in capital receipts, council documents show.
The use of hotels to house people over the past two years has created “enormous pressure” on the council as it tries to avoid bankruptcy. The council was forced to overspend its temporary accommodation budget by £6 million in the last financial year.
Havering has already approved another proposal to refurbish Chesham House, a former office and retail building in Romford, to create 55 residential properties. It comes as Havering, which is predicting a budget gap of around £74 million mainly due to exploding social care costs, has put in an application for emergency Government funding and loans to cover its rising debts.
Without the support the borough will go bust. Leader Roy Morgon said in 2010 his town hall received £70million of Revenue Support Grant from Central Government. Today it is just under £2 million. This week he told the Standard: “While we could ask for council tax to be raised above the 5 per cent ceiling we think that would not be sustainable or fair.
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