According to the Lib-Dem-led council, a decade of Conservative rule and the government\u2019s inability to look at the broader picture led to this now \u2018baked-in\u2019 housing crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 16 housing ministers in 13 years and that all fed into the chaos from central government,\u201d says Cllr Peter Diplock, cabinet member for housing and homelessness at Eastbourne Borough Council (EBC). \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a coherent plan, and that filtered down to the sharp end for the borough council, the housing authority, and our charity and voluntary sector partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Eastbourne\u2019s financial woes came to a head, Labour came to power, full of promises to \u201cget Britain building again\u201d. But one of the biggest things Labour can do to help local governments balance the books and avoid any future financial crisis, according to Cllr Diplock, is to overhaul the stagnant temporary accommodation reimbursement rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, local authorities who provide housing can claim back some of the cost of temporary accommodation, but it\u2019s based on local housing allowance rates<\/a> from 2011, which simply bear no relevance to today\u2019s rental payments<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was one of our big asks, which government seems to have ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n Another area where central government could offer more support, according to Cllr Diplock, is by helping struggling councils that find themselves under extra pressure from out-of-area housing placements.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s the principle that out-of-area placements should be the last resort. That\u2019s not got enough teeth for us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think large local authorities can ignore that, as they have done in the North West and parts of the South East as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n And it\u2019s the actions of its coastal neighbour<\/a> that Eastbourne has taken particular issue with.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the pandemic, Eastbourne called Brighton and Hove City Council\u2019s (BHCC) decision to house over 130 homeless people in the town without consultation an \u201cunfair burden\u201d. High-level talks between the two local authorities led to numbers falling to double figures in 2022.<\/p>\n But by late 2024, the numbers were creeping up again, and at the time, EBC told Big Issue it was \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about the increase<\/a>. Cllr Diplock claims the city council \u201chasn\u2019t particularly engaged\u201d with EBC over the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bit like the big brother who just ignores what the little sibling says,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people that were being placed here, at least on paper, look to be the most vulnerable, the most complex, the ones who needed the most support. And from our perspective, we just couldn\u2019t understand why those people were being pushed 20-odd miles down the coast when all of their support networks, all of their meetings with a GP or mental health support team, are all Brighton-based.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWe know that the logical outcome of this is that people do die because they are not provided with the support they need and would probably have if they were placed in area.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n In response, BHCC told Big Issue that it was facing the same pressures as Eastbourne and pointed out that it was working to increase housing availability in the city, as reflected by falling figures. As of January 29th, there were 171 households placed in Eastbourne from Brighton, down from 198 in September 2025. In January 2025, the figure stood at 149.<\/p>\n In comparison, Eastbourne\u2019s own out-of-area placements are in the \u201clow double digits\u201d and are often due to domestic abuse cases.<\/p>\n Retaliating against Cllr Diplock\u2019s claims, Councillor Gill Williams, cabinet member for housing at BHCC, said: \u201cLike many UK councils, Brighton and Hove is grappling with an unprecedented scale of need. The ongoing claims being made against our council are wildly inaccurate, extremely unfair and undermine the work our partners and housing teams do to support people in a housing crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is also incredibly disappointing to see elected politicians use dehumanising language when discussing people\u2019s lives and experiences. It does nothing to help address the complex issues we\u2019re facing.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that BHCC prioritised keeping people within Brighton and Hove and returning people in emergency placements back to the city as soon as possible. She insisted that they worked closely with neighbouring local authorities.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a team dedicated to supporting people in temporary accommodation,\u201d Cllr Williams added. \u201cThey take a risk-based approach to visiting people living in temporary accommodation and monitoring the accommodation provided, and we\u2019ve recently increased the frequency of many of these visits.\u201d<\/p>\n Cllr Diplock told Big Issue that Eastbourne was \u201chugely sympathetic\u201d and recognised that Brighton was in the same boat with regards to housing supply, adding: \u201cWe\u2019re not throwing stones for the sake of throwing stones. But there has to be a more cohesive and coherent approach.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately, out-of-area placements that separate people from their support networks, wherever they may be located, have led to temporary accommodation placements breaking down and contributed to a rise in rough sleeping in Eastbourne in recent months.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone\u2019s temporary accommodation placement does break down, they will often then just stay in Eastbourne rather than go back to Brighton. So then we have to try to find a housing solution for them,\u201d says Roland Brown, CEO of Kingdom Way Trust.<\/p>\n The charitable organisation provides emergency accommodation and supported accommodation for a small number of residents for up to two years. Kingdom Way Trust supports homeless people even if they don\u2019t have a link to Eastbourne.<\/p>\n \u201cPrimarily, the accommodation that we have to offer is shared accommodation, so the complexity with regards to mental health needs and substance misuse means that there\u2019s quite a high percentage of people that we\u2019re not currently able to house and support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n However, unlike the council, Brown does not lay all the blame at Brighton\u2019s door, pointing out that some people the organisation encounters are coming to Eastbourne from even further afield, either placed by their local authority or rough sleepers heading to the South Coast of their own accord.<\/p>\n Although the temporary accommodation crisis has proved an enormous headache for Eastbourne, Brown argues that, ironically, the town may simply be a victim of its own success as word spreads among the homeless community about the good provision of services offered by local charities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has certainly been suggested as a reason, and I wouldn\u2019t like to argue against it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the converse side of that is Eastbourne is a very expensive place to then try and find a rented room.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would be much better off going up to Newcastle to find somewhere that\u2019s more affordable than staying in Eastbourne.\u201d<\/p>\n But ultimately, the big problem for Eastbourne boils down to the same issue facing Brighton and other towns and cities across England \u2013 the demand for social housing far outweighs supply.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our biggest challenges is that once we\u2019ve given somebody a place in emergency housing, with the aim to move them on within three months, finding affordable and accessible accommodation for them to move on to is getting harder and harder,\u201d says Brown.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stagnation within temporary accommodation is also down to the fact that there just aren\u2019t enough council social housing places available.\u201d<\/p>\n Eastbourne Borough Council is already taking steps to tackle the housing shortage in the borough. EBC is one of just 33% of local authorities that have built social housing in each of the last five years, something that Cllr Diplock says the council is proud to be a part of.<\/p>\n But Eastbourne can\u2019t build and buy its way out of the temporary accommodation crisis alone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue trying to work with Brighton to tackle these out-of-area placements and the knock-on effects that those placements have. And again, we continue to lobby government for a more cohesive, more strategic approach,\u201d says Cllr Diplock.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cYou can\u2019t blame people for being homeless. It\u2019s not their fault. We\u2019re all only three paycheques away from it. We know that we want to help people and we do our absolute best to play our part.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cThe government can step up and lead.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this winter.<\/strong><\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 and always take the magazine. It\u2019s how vendors earn with dignity and how we fund our work to end poverty.<\/strong><\/p>\n You can also support online with a\u00a0<\/strong>vendor support kit<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0<\/strong>magazine subscription<\/strong><\/a>. Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the Lib-Dem-led council, a decade of Conservative rule and the government\u2019s inability to look at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,121,4884,6332,6333,17562,24850,16,15],"class_list":["post-798279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-feature","tag-great-britain","tag-homelessness","tag-housing","tag-rough-sleeping","tag-temporary-accommodation","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116157630742196657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}