1500+ ‘Potential Homeless’ Enquiries To Council In 12 Months

In the past year Wrexham Council has received over 1500 enquiries from potentially homeless people in the area – with a 16% increase in homelessness enquiries anticipated in 2015 / 16.

In the last 12 months alone Wrexham Council dealt with 1,730 enquiries from potentially homeless people. Of this total, 476 went onto make a full application and 162 were found to be owed a ‘full duty’.

However Council documents state: “Whilst the Housing Options team assess whether the Council have a duty to accommodate a number of applicants, the remainder may still be regarded as having significant unmet housing need that it unlikely to be addressed given the numbers on the housing register.”

At present where a homeless applicant is found to be in priority need and unintentionally homeless, the Council can only fulfil the re-housing duty by the provision of a Council or Registered Social Landlord (RSL) property. Initially, this often involves accommodating them in temporary accommodation until a suitable property becomes available

Currently in Wrexham the Private Rental Sector (PRS) amounts for almost 12% of the overall housing stock – providing 6900 properties and representing 930 landlords.

However in proposals due to go before the Council Executive Board on Tuesday, it is recommended that councillors agree to establish a Local Lettings Agency to help reduce demand on the Council’s Housing Register and to improve access to the PRS.

An LLA (Local Lettings Agency) are established to help provide affordable, privately rented accommodation for those who are on low incomes or are in housing need.

Generally a LLA will charge a lower fee than ‘mainstream letting agencies, are run by charities or local authorities and are targeted at people who otherwise would not be able to access accommodation through mainstream letting agencies.

The proposed LLA for Wrexham will operate a letting service for landlords and will build on the current established ‘Home-finder’ scheme operated by the Council’s Housing Options team.

The Housing Options team is already projecting a 16% increase in the number of enquiries received during 2014/15 compared with the same quarter in the previous year.

In Wrexham there are currently around 2,200 applicants on the Council’s Housing Register (Housing Waiting and Transfer List). This number has been constant for a number of years, however there are only around 800 new lettings a year and new applicants constantly joining the register there are many people in housing need that are unlikely to be offered a property.

The report goes onto note that many people on the housing register have ‘very little realistic opportunity of securing a suitable Council property’, do to insufficient points and / or a limited supply of properties in their area of choice.

However the report carries onto comment on the need for a ‘Local Lettings Agency’, listing the demand for private rental sector housing, an unrealistic chance of some being allocated a property and the inaccessibility of current fees / charges ‘levied by letting agents’ making it difficult for tenants.

“The establishment of a LLA will further support the improvement required to property conditions in the PRS. All properties marketed by the LLA will need to satisfy the Council’s minimum property standards. The Council’s Private Rented Sector Team will work with landlords to ensure their properties meet the required standards.

“For those unwilling to co-operate, appropriate enforcement action will be taken. It is vital that the LLA only market properties that meet minimum property standards.”

The Executive Board Report can be viewed in full here. The meeting will take place at 2pm on Tuesday 11th November at the Guildhall – or you can watch the meeting live on the Wrexham Council website via webcast.