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10
Aug 2022
Last Updated: 10/08/2022
‘Huge’ increase in demand for Harrogate council homeless services
Harrogate Borough Council has revealed a “huge” increase in demand for its homeless services due to the cost of living crisis which is only set to get worse as inflation rises.
Homelessness. Photo: Dennis Jarvis/Flickr
Harrogate Borough Council has revealed a “huge” increase in demand for its homeless services due to the cost of living crisis which is only set to get worse as inflation rises.
A 60% jump in people seeking help has been reported by the council which also said it is struggling to recruit staff in line with national shortages.
It added cases which its staff deal with are “more complex than normal” and that finding suitable accommodation for those facing homelessness “isn’t always easy due to complicating factors like mental health or debts”.
A council report said:
“Following a huge increase in the number of families approaching the service, the homelessness indicators performance have worsened.
“Our homelessness performance indicators, though off target, unfortunately reflect broader national trends around homelessness.
“Housing teams across the country have been dealing with higher case loads.
“In Harrogate, cases are about 60% higher than previous years.”
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The increase comes amid big rises in the cost of living with soaring prices, especially energy, putting a squeeze on people’s finances.
Energy bills are expected to rise even further later this year when a typical household will be spending almost £300 a month. That is according to the Bank of England which also predicts the UK economy will fall into a recession, with inflation climbing as high as 13%.
Harrogate Borough Council itself has not been immune to the price rises and is forecasting a £701,000 overspend on this year’s budget.
This time last year, the forecast was an underspend of £32,000 for 2022/23.
The latest outlook is largely due to soaring energy bills, with the council expecting to spend around an extra £1 million on gas and £750,000 on electricity this year.
A report said:
“The council’s latest financial position shows that we are forecasting an overspend of £701,000.
“It is, however, early in the year and there will inevitably be other variations during the course of the year.
“We have yet to receive any actual bills for this year and the national position with regard to future price increases remains highly volatile.”
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