Council to buy homes for temporary housing

A council wants to buy 139 new-build homes to use as temporary accommodation and ensure families are not displaced elsewhere.

Dartford Borough Council has agreed to start urgent negotiations to use the properties as short-term housing for the homeless and in-need residents.

The homes, which a council report said were the "only option that would deliver results quickly", are planned for two undisclosed sites in the borough and would be built in the second half of 2026 and leased from January 2027.

The authority has struggled with a shortage of temporary accommodation due to landlords either selling properties or increasing rent prices, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council's cabinet agreed plans to negotiate a 55-year lease on 139 new-build homes in the borough.

A cabinet report said: "This option would enable the council to bring out-of-borough temporary accommodation placements back into the borough in a prescribed timeframe as well as ensuring that these properties would not be leased to other councils, which was otherwise very likely given the similar pressures faced by other local authorities."

The council will have the option to buy the freehold on all the properties for £1 at the end of the lease, the report said.

Jonathon Hawkes, leader of the opposition, said the scheme was a welcome move to ensure Dartford families were not displaced.

In February it was revealed the council was fast losing emergency accommodation, leaving it struggling to "proactively prevent homelessness".

Private landlords, who the council rents some of its temporary accommodation from, were looking to increase rent, sometimes by £500-£600 a month.

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