­­­­A report to the Housing and Community Safety Committee last week set out a requirement to make key policy changes to the Temporary Accommodation Charging Policy to mitigate a temporary accommodation budgetary deficit.

Members agreed to review the extent to which costs are recovered by rent and service charges. The current charging framework has been in place since April 2015 with no subsequent annual increase.

It means income generated has remained static while costs have increased and the temporary accommodation service has increasingly been operating at a deficit.

A consultation exercise on the revised Temporary Accommodation Charging Policy is now underway with key stakeholders.

Committee chair, Cllr Amber Dunbar, said: “The council is facing increased housing demand pressures across the board as we strive to provide homelessness support and invest in homelessness prevention services. A key aim of the revised policy for temporary accommodation is that it seeks to ensure that temporary accommodation is affordable to all. We take individual circumstances into account.”

The local authority can require a homeless person to pay a reasonable charge for the provision of temporary accommodation to reflect cost incurred by the Council.

Local authorities, having regard to the Scottish Government’s Code of Guidance on Homelessness, can decide how much is reasonable, and assist the applicant to maximise their income by applying for benefit to cover the cost.

A special meeting of Moray Council on 1 March 2023 agreed an interim measure of increasing the rent and service charge by 27% (effective from 6 April 2023) and to carry out a review of the policy.

The consultation will end on Wednesday 2 August 2023. Feedback will be reviewed and a final Temporary Accommodation Charging Policy will be presented to the Housing and Community Safety Committee on 12 September 2023.