Once the speeches on affordable housing have been digested, some delegates at next week's CIH conference will be sleeping in B&Bs that usually house homeless people. Joey Gardiner reports on Harrogate council's struggle to find extra beds in a town that's all booked up.
Cast your mind back. It's Harrogate, the Chartered Institute of Housing's 2003 conference, one year ago this week. While you were attending seminars, taking advantage of prime networking opportunities and trying to find some edible food in the conference centre, you probably weren't aware of the work going on above you.

For on top of the conference centre building sits the council's health and housing department. And while you were busy talking to colleagues about solving the affordable housing problem, Harrogate's housing staff were solving the more immediate problem of where homeless people were going to sleep that evening. And the cause of all this frantic activity? None other than the housing conference itself. All the hotels are full so, ironically, homeless people are moved out of B&Bs to make way for delegates.

The town is likely to suffer the same problem again this year. "I'm sure the delegates have absolutely no idea, and they'd be appalled if they realised the problems the conference caused," says Dawn Saxby, assistant director of policy and private sector housing at Harrogate council. "Harrogate looks so affluent, people don't realise the problems we have here."

And Harrogate does have a problem. The number of homeless presentations has doubled in eight years, reaching more than 1000 last year. By 2007, they are predicted to top 1600. Until a couple of years ago, the council rarely used B&Bs, regarding them as beneath the standard that was acceptable for homeless families. Now it has up to 20 homeless households in B&Bs at any given time, despite the fact that it met the government's targets for taking families out of them. Spending on B&B accommodation rose 30-fold between 2001/2 and 2002/3 – from £1191 to £43,056.

But Harrogate's popularity as a conference venue means that, at certain times of the year, B&Bs have a ready stream of higher-paying guests. The CIH conference, which welcomes 8000 delegates every year, is the second largest the town hosts after the Toy and Gift Fair in January. As a result, this week the council expects to have to find new accommodation for at least three people displaced from B&Bs.

Harrogate's plight goes to the heart of the North-west's affordability problem. It is the centre of North Yorkshire's "golden triangle" of high demand and has house prices equivalent to some London boroughs. At £156,081, the average terraced house costs seven times the average local salary. An authority that covers a booming and largely picturesque rural area, Harrogate has used all of the development land in its local plan, so it can't build its way out of the problem.

Furthermore, every site identified for housing in the local plan has already been developed or is being developed, with no prospect of an updated plan until 2007. So despite the council demanding – and getting – more than 50% affordable housing through the planning system on the few small projects the area does get, there is no chance of making housing affordable. Its housing waiting list rose from 1557 people in 2003 to 2091 people this year. "There is simply so much need out there and, despite our best endeavours, we can't meet it," says Saxby.

Harrogate has only 115 places for homeless households in temporary accommodation. It is paying for an extra hostel for homeless families through its housing revenue account, but many of its homeless people require supported housing – and it cannot build more supported units because the squeeze on Supporting People funding means registered social landlords can't get extra revenue to do this. Other pressures on RSLs make it harder for them to help. Driven to create balanced, sustainable communities, they frequently won't take difficult or unreliable tenants – traits often associated with homeless people.

But if a homeless person has support needs such as mental health issues or addiction, taking him or her away from familiar support networks can have a terrible impact. Saxby says: "A vulnerable young person could get into all sorts of trouble without people on hand around them."

I’m sure the delegates would be appalled if they realised the housing problems the conference caused

Dawn Saxby, Harrogate Council

While you're at the conference …
Typically the council will receive notice a week in advance from a B&B that it will not be able to provide accommodation at a particular time. This prompts a frantic round of calls, often for hours, to secure an alternative bed. More often than not they have to look far afield: two weeks ago, the council had to rehouse three people forced out of B&Bs to make way for a barbershop quartet conference. It could only offer them beds in Ripon, 10 miles away. All three refused and it's not known where they stayed.

If the homeless person accepts the offer, they have to gather their worldly possessions and hop on a bus. The council has petty cash to help with the fares.

At last June's conference, though, there was nothing within the town at all. One person had to travel 40 miles to Barnsley.

Jenny Neuburger, policy officer at charity Shelter, says the situation in Harrogate is unacceptable but points out: "If we didn't have homeless people in B&Bs, this wouldn't happen. They shouldn't be in this position."

Harrogate is not alone in having problems with seasonal demand. Edinburgh has to relocate homeless households as far away as Fife and Lothian during the Edinburgh Festival and in surfers' mecca Newquay, homelessness is exacerbated by the summer season. Claire Fowler, housing services manager at Restormel council in Cornwall, says:"When the weather starts to get better, Newquay attracts people from across the country, fleeing from poor housing, domestic violence, relationship breakdowns; but there just isn't the accommodation available here." She pre-books B&B rooms for popular weekends: "We know we're likely to be presented with someone homeless. If we don't have somewhere, it can take seven or eight hours of phoning round to find a place. Many B&Bs won't take homeless people."

Newquay and Edinburgh, which have long experience of temporary homelessness problems, try to limit moving people around at high-demand times by dealing with B&Bs who agree to take only homeless clients, and by having long-term deals to lease private housing. But Harrogate has huge obstacles in the way of securing this additional, more stable accommodation. As well as land shortages, a buoyant private rental market means there's no incentive for landlords to let properties to the council, especially when they'll only get housing benefit level payouts.

The council is making efforts though – for example giving grants to private landlords to renovate empty properties on condition they allow them to be managed by an RSL. But it is only really scratching at the surface of the problem. The real difficulty – rocketing housing demand, next to static housing supply – is out of the council's hands.

Source

Housing Today