Wiltshire Council buying 250 homes for people in urgent need

A council is to spend about £50m on buying up to 250 homes for people in urgent need of a place to live.

Wiltshire Council is investing in houses for people such as those sleeping rough, or in social care, and refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan.

They will not be available to people on the council housing scheme register, the authority said.

The homes will be bought using a combination of council budget reserves, government grants and commercial loans.

As well as meeting the housing needs of vulnerable people, the properties will be a long-term investment, the council said.

Council leader Richard Clewer, said: "We are committed to this significant investment as a clear indication we are taking an innovative and serious approach to addressing housing issues in Wiltshire."

The council currently meets the costs of buying or building new homes through its own funds, supplemented by the government's Local Authority Housing Fund.

This pays for homes for people who have applied and been accepted onto the council housing register.

Since 2020, the council has also provided homes through its commercial housing company Stone Circle Developments, which lets properties on shorter, fixed-term leases to people such as refugees, care workers and care leavers.

The funding method being used to purchase the new homes will see £10m set aside in council reserves used as equity to buy up to £40m worth of housing, making up the £50m pot.

Jo Kitching, CEO of Chippenham's housing charity Doorway, has welcomed the plans, which were approved at a council cabinet meeting on 11 July.

She said creative thinking had been needed to solve housing problems in Wiltshire and "it could only be a good thing" if the scheme worked.

"The situation in Wiltshire is terrible and people are rough sleeping for longer than they would have been two years ago," she said.

"Living rough is traumatising and can take a very, very long time to get over."

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