Ipswich Borough Council has fallen below targets for homelessness relief and households in temporary accommodation during the last three years, but has consistently met homelessness prevention targets.

A housing report was discussed at Ipswich Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny committee meeting last week, in which councillor Neil MacDonald, portfolio holder for housing, expressed concerns that the number of rough sleepers was creeping up.

The report considered the housing stock owned by Ipswich Borough Council, which totals around 7,000 properties.

Cllr MacDonald said: “We do have a high level of homelessness in Ipswich.

Ipswich Star: Cllr Neil MacdonaldCllr Neil Macdonald (Image: IPSWICH BOROUGH COUNCIL)

“In my opinion, we’re doing a very good job in prevention. There are issues around relief, and that is because we are advised by the government that we should relieve homelessness in the private rented sector.

“There is a concern about the numbers of single people needing accommodation, which is high and continuing to grow.

“We have also lost a building we had on lease, and we need to get more properties.

“In terms of rough sleeping, when I came into this post five or six years ago, there were 28 people rough sleeping on a single night. In July 2022, we found six people in one night. There has been a lot of work done by a lot of agencies, and I used to think we were getting on top of rough sleeping.

“But we can see the numbers creeping back up again. For the whole of April, there were 17 people rough sleeping during at least one night. Now, in July, we found 24 who had slept outside for at least one night.

“One of the biggest issues we have with rough sleeping is housing-related support, which is a service commissioned by the county council. They commission about 200-bed spaces across the county, and many are in Ipswich.

“We have an issue with how they deal with the mental health of people who live on the streets. I was really annoyed with one provider who evicted eight people with mental health problems on one Friday.”

Homelessness can mean rough sleeping, but it also encompasses those without permission to stay where they are, staying at friends’ accommodation or in a hostel, living in poor conditions which are detrimental to health, and at risk of violence where they live.

Homelessness was relieved for 214 households in 2021/2022, against a target of 260. This was the lowest figure for the three years reported on.

A more ambitious target of 300 was set during the previous two years, but was not met. In 2020/21 249 households were relieved of homelessness, and the figure was 262 for 2019/20.

The number of households in temporary accommodation was 87 against a target of 75 in 2021/22, and 63 against a target of 60 in 2020/21.

The figure was 125 the year before, 108% above a target of 60 – which was put down to the pandemic in the report.

The number of households prevented from becoming homeless beat the council's target in 2021/22, at 888 against a target of 800. However, greater success in this measure was seen the year before – the target stayed the same, and 920 households were kept from homelessness.

In 2019/20, the homelessness prevention target was 700 households, and the actual number of households kept from homelessness was 850.

The number of people sleeping rough on a single night was three in 2021/22, nine in 2020/21 and seven in 2019/20. The target changed from seven to five last year. However, counting people sleeping outside during just one night may not reflect the true scale of the problem.

Cllr MacDonald points out that Ipswich Borough Council doesn’t have total influence over performance against all targets. Importantly, it cannot control how many private landlords evict their tenants and cause them to be homeless.

The demolition of the former Diesco site on Ipswich’s Hawke Road, completed yesterday, could pave way for 26 new council homes. The submission of a planning application is expected soon.