Powys County Council is predicted to spend nearly £400,0000 less on emergency accommodation for the homeless this year compared to the last financial year.

The council stated it will be “reducing the need” for emergency and temporary accommodation by “speeding up” the offers for permanent homes for those in need.

Having disclosed that the council spent £3.2 million on temporary or emergency accommodation for people sleeping rough in the financial year of 2023/2024, they also revealed that they are predicted to spend significantly less in the same area this year.

The council confirmed that their estimated expenditure for 2024/2025 is set at £2.8 million, meaning they will be spending £396,701 less on the service for this financial year.

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Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for a Fairer Powys, Cllr Matthew Dorrance said tackling homelessness and the causes of homelessness are a "top priority" for the council.

"We are reducing the need for temporary accommodation by speeding up the offers of permanent homes to those people who, due to being homeless, are eligible for an offer of social housing," he said.

“This is the result of closer working between the council and housing associations providing homes in Powys and improvements in the turnaround time for the council’s own homes.

“The predicted emergency temporary/emergency accommodation spend during 2024/25 is a positive of the significant reduction in the use of bed and breakfast as emergency accommodation which has fallen by 55 per cent over the last 10 months.

“However, homelessness and indeed the need for genuinely affordable homes, let on secure tenancies, remains a major challenge in Powys.”

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So far in 2024, the number of recorded homelessness cases in Powys is at 769, according to the council’s own wellbeing information bank. This is compared to 1,120 in 2023 and 1,052 in 2022.

In December 2023 the council announced that it would be up new centres where people can go to receive support for homelessness, such as two 24/7 triage centres, two interim 24/7 supported accommodation schemes to provide self-contained homes for those with complex needs, and for 20 modular units for interim accommodation.

This came after the council adopted a Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan in August, which set out how the council and other agencies such as housing associations will work together over the next five years to prevent homelessness, or at least to move people from temporary accommodation into a settled home.