Homeless people in Bognor are staying too long, watchdog tells council

The length of the stays was among the worst in the country, the Audit Commission reported in its latest assessment of Arun District Council's housing service.

It was a symptom of the underdevelopment of the council's approach to preventing homelessness found by the inspectors.

The criticism is contained in the independent report by the spending watchdog.

The commission examined how Arun spent some of its 23.3m budget on housing. Its inspectors gave the council an overall fair rating of one star on a scale from zero to three stars.

Sara Kulay, the commission's lead south east housing inspector, said she was confident greater investment in the service would produce improvements in the areas where they were needed.

"Arun has worked hard to develop its planning policy and the revised framework is now supporting delivery of more affordable homes.

"An effective approach to driving up housing conditions in the private sector is also supporting more vulnerable households," she stated.

Arun's councillor in charge of housing, Robin Brown, said: "The challenges faced by our housing department in this current economic downturn are vast.

"Demands on services are high and we appreciate the difficulties faced by people who have come to us for help.

"We are committed to delivering a high-quality housing service and we will use the report findings and recommendations to improve."

Among the changes the council is pledging to achieve are to reduce the time taken to look into homelessness applications and the period applicants spend in B&B accommodation.

The housing and homelessness strategies will also be revised to address the needs of older and younger people as well as migrant workers. Work will continue as well to move homeless households in temporary accommodation into permanent housing.

As well as homelessness, the inspection covered housing advice, private-sector housing work and work to deliver new housing.

Positive aspects of the housing service were found to include the effective regulation of private rented housing and planning policy changes which should boost the number of affordable homes.

The inspectors also praised the easy access to the service enjoyed by most users, the information available on the council's website and the recent launch of a student accommodation approval system.

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