Will the Minister confirm how much money local authorities in Wales spent on the homes of individuals and families in temporary accommodation in the financial years 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22?
Local Authorities fund statutory homelessness provision, including temporary accommodation, from their own resources, including council tax and Welsh Government support through the annual unhypothecated local government settlement and specific grants.
In 2020-21 and 2021-22 Welsh Government provided additional funding, over and above the RSG, for the additional costs associated with the ‘no-one left out’ approach. This was provided via the Covid Hardship Fund, which included a number of streams of funding for both the local authorities own increased costs and for programmes that they were administering on behalf of the Welsh Government.
Within this fund local authorities were able to claim for the additional costs to keep people safe during the pandemic, this included temporary accommodation, wrap-around support, security, food, and other staffing and support costs. As claims were made under specific categories, it is not possible to separate out the specific temporary accommodation costs within the homelessness spend.
The total costs claimed under the homelessness category are as follows:
2020-21 - £29,688,709
2021-22 - £41,463,999