Council blames £2m overspend on homeless pressures

A West Sussex council has blamed the rising number of cases of homelessness for what it said will be be a £2m overspend on its budget.

Worthing Borough Council says it expects to spend 30% of its annual budget on the problem, with cases rising over the last three years.

It said this is despite building its own temporary accommodation and dealing directly with landlords to prevent people having to move into B&Bs.

The issue will be discussed by councillors on Tuesday, with a plan in place to ask central government for more money.

The authority says out of its £17.8m budget for the current financial year, it expects to spend £5.36m on homelessness.

In the six months after April there were 335 households at risk of being made homeless, the council said.

For the same period in the previous two years, 329 and 261 households had been at risk of being made homeless.

The council said it would be approaching the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to ask for exceptional funding to help balance its books.

It will be discussed at the council's strategic committee at 18:30 GMT on Tuesday.

The MHCLG has been approached for comment.

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