Eastbourne Borough Council could be set to declare housing emergency

It comes weeks after Eastbourne Borough Council (EBC) revealed it spends 49p of every £1 collected on temporary accommodation.

These costs are ‘pushing a large swathe of councils to the verge of bankruptcy’, according to EBC which led a joint bid to tackle homelessness and the financial crisis at Westminster last month.

More than 50 leaders – alongside homelessness charities Crisis and the Trussell Trust – attended the talks where EBC leader Councillor Stephen Holt outlined the scale of the problem facing his council and said the Government must prevent a ‘national crisis’.

Ahead of tonight’s meeting, councillor Peter Diplock, cabinet member for housing and planning, said: “Rising homelessness and spiralling costs associated with temporary accommodation placements have reached unprecedented levels.

"Ordinary working families are finding themselves priced out of the housing market with nowhere else to turn other than the council.

“This is a national social and financial crisis and represents an existential threat to local government.

"That is why I shall be proposing we declare a Housing Emergency this evening and look forward to debating this at Full Council.

"We will continue our cross-party campaign to highlight the unsustainable pressure this is placing on councils across the country and call on government to provide additional resources for the worst affected authorities.”

Councils declare housing emergencies during unprecedented demand for accommodation to bring attention to the situation and to place further pressure on the Government to take action.