London councils buy £140m of property to move homeless people out of city

London councils and housing companies they own have spent more than £140m buying up homes to relocate homeless people out of the city.

More than a dozen councils in the capital have collectively spent millions buying up more than 850 properties in towns and cities across England since 2017, Guardian analysis of property ownership data found.

The homes are either owned directly by councils or by companies they partly or wholly own.

They are used to house homeless individuals and families, either temporarily in emergency accommodation or permanently in privately rented homes.

Most of the homes are in deprived areas in the south-east and east of England that are already under huge pressures due to homelessness among their own residents.

But in the past year London councils have looked farther afield, buying up a small number of properties in the Midlands and laying out plans to buy more in north-east England.

Housing charities said families’ lives were thrown into “turmoil” by being moved away from their communities. Labour MPs urged the government to reconsider its approach to the “scarring” out-of-area placements, which are at their highest levels since records began.

Waltham Forest and Bromley councils, via companies they jointly own with the housing and social care company Mears Group, have collectively spent almost £80m buying more than 500 homes in areas including Harlow and Thurrock in Essex and Maidstone in Kent since 2017.

Both councils use these properties to discharge their homelessness duties and permanently rehouse people out of London.

Brent council has spent more than £18m buying 75 properties across Milton Keynes, Hemel Hempstead and Slough, while Barnet council has spent more than £10m buying nearly 70 properties in Peterborough and Luton.

Brent and Barnet used companies they wholly owned to make these purchases since 2017.

Housing Gateway, a company wholly owned by Enfield council, spent £13m in 2018 buying Greenway House, a converted office block on the outskirts of Harlow with 83 flats that are used as temporary accommodation.

In December, Enfield council laid out plans to buy 28 homes through Housing Gateway around Liverpool this year. It said these properties would initially be used as temporary accommodation with the aim of finding homeless households long-term housing in the area once relocated.

(Properties have been bought in Maidstone in Kent to rehouse people out of London. Photograph: Air Video UK/Alamy)

Ref: London councils buy £140m of property to move homeless people out of city Photo Credit- Air Video UK/ Alamy,