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Search the Public Notice PortalHousing costs are continuing to put pressure on council finances, senior Hastings councillors have heard.
On Monday (January 5), Hastings Borough Council’s cabinet heard how the authority is on track for further overspending in the 2025/26 financial year.
Kit Wheeler, the council’s head of finance, attributed the overspend to pressures within the council’s housing budget — in particular costs associated with temporary accommodation placements.
Mr Wheeler said: “We are forecasting an overspend of around/about £700,000. That is in most part down to housing … that is the main area of focus in terms of these reports, both historically and no doubt for the rest of the year.
“As the report highlights, it is that temporary accommodation cost that has been plaguing us predominantly for the majority of our time.
“The numbers as stated in the report at the end of October was 527 [households in private temporary accommodation]. That is much more than we would ideally like and the team are doing everything they can to reduce that but external pressures continue.”
He added: “Officers as a collective group, along with councillors, are continuing to do everything they can to try and reduce those numbers.
“That is the biggest pressure on us as a council, the rest of the portfolio is actually underspent compared to that … so the rest of the organisation is essentially pulling their weight and a bit extra.”
The council had set an initial housing budget of around £5.959m in 2025/26. It is, the report says, currently on track to spend a little over £7.040m instead.
Once reserve movements are factored in, this budget area is expected to have an individual overspend of £965,299 more than the initial budget.
According to the report, the main reason for this variance is because there were more households living in privately-procured temporary accommodation (PPTA) at the start of the financial year than had been forecast for in the inital budget.
When this element of the budget was put together in December 2024, the council had 500 households in PPTA. The council had been in the process of reducing this figure at the time and so the budget assumed the council would only have around 470 households in PPTA at the start of April 2025.
This assumption proved to be incorrect, with the council starting the financial year with around 535 households in PPTA, resulting in higher than expected costs.
As of October (the most recent figures quoted in the report), the council had 527 households in PPTA. But the report also notes how this figure had fluctuated significantly throughout the year.
The report said the overall number of households in PPTA had reduced by 48 between April to the end of August, but this progress was offset by sharp increase in both September and October.
The report noted how this increase had been partly prompted by a higher than usual number of cases involving family breakdowns during this period.
The council had also seen an increase in the number of cases involving evictions by private landlords during October. The report also notes how the abolition of section 21 evictions (better known as ‘no fault’ evictions) is due to come into force this May.
But the report says the largest contributor to the increase is a lack of empty social homes for people in temporary accommodation to move on into. The report says this issue should begin to reduce as more affordable homes are built within the town.
The report also notes how the per unit cost of PPTA has remained relatively stable when compared to the previous financial year, saying “the challenge is around numbers overall not currently around the price of placements themselves.”
The full report, which covers a period up to the end of October, sets out how the council is predicting an “adverse variance” of £816,396 in its “direct service expenditure” by the end of the financial year.
This takes into account the housing overspend, as well as underspends in other areas of the council’s finances.
The report also says this variance will be partially offset through the unbudgeted use of around £294,512 of earmarked reserves.
Overall, the report says, the council is expected to spend around £19.071m in total in 2025/26. It had budgeted to spend a little under £18.307m, bringing the total projected overspend for the year to £763,848.
