My name is Ian Thomas and I am currently conducting some research into homelessness in seaside towns.I contacted your office recently with my queries and was asked to e-mail my questions to this address.

My questions are as follows:

1.How many people were recorded as living in bed and breakfast accommodation in your council area in each of the last 30 years?

We don’t have data for 30 years but we have provided the available data for 2002 - 2013

2002/03 / 2003/04 / 2004/05 / 2005/06
Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
Households in B&B / 282 / 297 / 270 / 251 / 240 / 266 / 219 / 200 / 189 / 202 / 170 / 129 / 119 / 96 / 86 / 91
2006/07 / 2007/08 / 2008/09 / 2009/10
Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q1 / Q1 / Q1 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
Households in B&B / 102 / 102 / 107 / 110 / 102 / 103 / 90 / 78 / 63 / 61 / 53 / 57 / 46 / 64 / 78 / 41
2010/11 / 2011/12 / 2012/13 / 2013/14
Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 / Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4
Households in B&B / 101 / 85 / 74 / 80 / 106 / 130 / 96 / 105 / 96 / 135 / 98 / 103 / 93 / 90

2.How many tenants affected by the under-occupancy penalty are now subject to eviction?

The answer is 0, but that is obviously just for our own council stock – approx 12,000 properties. If the statistics are to reflect ‘seaside towns’ then stats will need to be provided for the Registered Providers and the Private Rented Sector – which we do not have.

3.How many Night Shelters have there been in your council area in each of the last 10 years, and how many residents have they held in that period? Does your Council pay Housing Benefits to people staying in Night Shelters?

We currently have no permanent open access night shelter operating in Brighton and Hove. The last open access shelter which was based at St Patricks Church in Hove was closed by the service provider in early 2012, it had not been funded by the local authority for 6 years prior to this. A winter shelter operated by local churches has run for the last two winters and opened again this November, it takes 15 males at anyone time and will be open this year until March. This is a charitable service and the council do not monitor their figures. The council operates a severe weather emergency protocol (SWEP) which includes the use of shelters and temporary accommodation to house rough sleepers when the temperature is predicted to drop below 0 degrees for three consecutive nights, this service is free to users and no housing benefit is collected. The shelter is operated in line with good practice from Homeless Link. The number of people accommodated has grown over recent years with three venues open last year and four in place this year. The figures for the last two winters are as follows

  • In 2011/12 SWEP was open for 21 nights and provided 541 bed spaces between January and February 2012.
  • In 2012/13 SWEP was open for 44 nights providing a total of 1714 bed spaces from November 2012 to April 2013.
  • The average (mean) number of individuals accommodated each night during SWEP was 26 in 2011/12 and 40 in 2012/13.
  • The highest number of individuals accommodated on one night was 36 in February 2011/12 and 58 on two occasions in March 2013.