Decision details

Approve the expenditure of the allocated grant in line with the grant conditions. Please see Dept for Levelling Up, Housing and Communties (DLUHC) guidance issued by letter on 22 December 2021. Full grant payment is expected as follows.
“Payment Process: Allocations can be found at Annex B. Payments are scheduled early in the New Year (2022). Funding has been allocated based on the levels of rough sleeping in each area. S151 officers will be required to submit a spend declaration to the department confirming the grant has been spent in line with grant conditions by 14 April 2022. In line with ringfencing rules, any underspend will be returned to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The council has been allocated £914,198 by DLUHC in order to provide accommodation for rough sleepers and to encourage vaccination uptake amongst this cohort. As the total expenditure is in excess of £500k, this will be taken to Cabinet at the earlier available opportunity for authorisation (8 February 2022).
The council was only notified of the funding on 20 December 2021 and the deadline for expenditure is 31 March 2022.
Therefore, in order to ensure that these essential services are delivered at the earliest opportunity and the Council ensures the most effective use of the funding, the Chief Executive has taken the decision, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Housing Delivery, to authorise initial expenditure from Council resources, (circa £129k detailed below) pending the receipt of the DLUHC grant.
The Council is in a position to enter into an appropriate contract in respect of Arnos Vale Manor Hotel to commence delivery of these services with effect from 5 January 2022.

Option 1 - The funding may only be spent on providing accommodation for and encouraging vaccination uptake amongst the homeless population in the city. The only alternative to this proposal would be to reject the funding offer from HLUHC.
Option 2 -
Option 3 -