Monmouthshire Council’s £3,500 a Week Homeless Accommodation Sparks Debate

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Monmouthshire Council has come under scrutiny after reports surfaced that it has been spending £3,500 each week to house a single homeless person, a revelation that has prompted the council’s housing lead, Sara Burch, to launch an investigation into the matter.
She remains “hopeful” that reliance on bed and breakfast establishments for temporary accommodation will be almost entirely phased out by the closure of the 2025/26 fiscal year, describing the change as a “significant saving” for the council, which spent £1.5 million on B&Bs in the previous year.
This pledge followed questions from Conservative councillor Jayne McKenna, who highlighted the issue during an April council meeting, stating: “I have been informed that in recent years the council have been hiring 10 rooms per week at a venue in Monmouthshire, at a cost of £3,500 per week, yet occupancy within the past month has been as low as 10 per cent, so effectively that’s £3,500 a week to house one person, which does raise serious questions about values for money.”
Cllr Burch acknowledged the concern and said, “I’ll definitely look into the detail of that, we are gradually withdrawing from what I think are sometimes block contracts and gradually withdrawing from some of those arrangements that had been in place previously.” She revealed Monmouthshire spent £1.5 million on bed and breakfast accommodation in the 2024/25 financial year, down from over £2.1 million the year before, clarifying these as “gross figures” with some costs offset by housing benefit.
The council has also reported a decline in homelessness since 2023, following the adoption of its Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan, with Cllr Burch noting, “The number of homelessness inquiries I’m pleased to say are now reducing and consequently the numbers needing temporary accommodation including B&B’s have reduced,” and highlighting a drop from 94 people in B&B accommodation in April 2023 to just 20 now.
When the Labour administration took over County Hall in 2022, more than 100 homeless households were being housed in hotels, bed and breakfasts, or other temporary accommodation, including holiday lets, but Cllr Burch said the council, through its housing options team and other strategies, can “prevent homelessness in the majority of cases.” The former Severn View care home in Chepstow will soon be used as temporary accommodation, and the council has purchased and leased additional homes for this purpose, resulting in a reduction in the use of “less suitable accommodation” and delivering cost savings while providing support to help tenants remain in their homes.
Nationally, the cost of temporary accommodation for homeless households has been a growing concern, with the Local Government Association warning that councils across England spent over £1.7 billion on temporary accommodation in 2023, a 9% increase from the previous year, underscoring the pressure local authorities face as they balance immediate needs with long-term housing solutions.