ITV’s Tonight programme visited North Devon Council, where homelessness has risen by a third in the past year and spending on temporary accommodation has doubled to £1.2m since 2019.

You can see the documentary by clicking here, with North Devon appearing after around 12 minutes, 30 seconds.

Many properties there have been converted to short-term lets, rents have rocketed and many private landlords have left the market, leaving little affordable accommodation available.

The documentary followed the work of housing team members working tirelessly in order to secure homes that people can afford to remain in long-term.

Aaron Streat, who leads North Devon’s homelessness and temporary accommodation service, said that with fewer affordable properties, “you get people stuck, they’ve got nowhere to go.”

“You can do everything you can to bring about a positive outcome as quickly as you can but you have to work within the constraints that you’ve got,” he added.

Mr Streat recounted how on a weekly basis staff encountered residents shouting or threatening self-harm, such was their level of desperation.

He also said how the council negotiated with landlords and social housing providers and had maintained a good working relationship with estate agents as part of its work to get residents into appropriate housing.

The council’s chief executive Ken Miles described homelessness’s impact on councils’ overall financial position as a “ticking timebomb”, adding: “You will shortly start seeing councils warning of their own impending bankruptcy because of temporary accommodation.

“I don’t think you can say it’s anything other than a crisis.”

Thank you to North Devon for working with DCN and ITV to share its experience and the dedication of its staff with a national audience.

DCN seeks to work with our member councils to bring the challenges they face and the opportunities they offer to a wider audience. If you are interested in featuring in DCN’s media work, please email nick.golding@local.gov.uk.

No fewer than 119 councils have signed our letter to the Chancellor, warning him of the rapidly worsening scale of the problem. Increasing homelessness resulting from factors including the cost-of-living crisis, private landlords leaving the market, homes being used for short-term lets and rent rises has left councils facing unprecedented costs for temporary accommodation.

As DCN’s Homelessness Summit, organised with Eastbourne Borough Council, heard last week, in some cases, this threatens to result in the financial collapse of individual councils, as well as leading to significant human suffering.

“With a chronic shortage of social housing available, councils are being forced to spend more and more housing families in hotels, hostels and bed and breakfast accommodation,” said an ITV News report.

Sky News quoted DCN’s letter: “Our situation is becoming untenable,” it said. “The ensuing increase in costs is a critical risk to the financial sustainability of many local authorities.”

“Councils across England have demanded urgent government action to prevent the spiralling cost of providing temporary accommodation to people at risk of homelessness from overwhelming local budgets,” was the Financial Times take.

And The Guardian said: “Over the past two years many smaller, lower-tier authorities – often in affluent home counties areas around London such as Essex and Sussex – have become increasingly vulnerable financially as a housing and homelessness crisis once focused on London and other major cities has spread rapidly.”

The New Statesman focussed on Hastings Borough Council’s plight. “Away from its salt-whipped pebble beaches and bleached arcade fronts, this East Sussex seaside town has been hit with a perfect storm of housing woes.”

A BBC report quoted Eastbourne leader Cllr Stephen Holt. “This summit must be a catalyst for change and that change cannot wait,” he said.

And, in a follow-up BBC report today, Cllr Hannah Dalton, DCN’s housing spokesperson, said: “Unless action is taken in the autumn statement, society’s most vulnerable people will continue to be hit hardest — the lifeline that their councils offer them will collapse and there will be a knock-on impact on other public services, including the NHS.”

Thank you to both the councils which contributed to this coverage – Eastbourne in particular – and to the titles and channels which have worked with us on this important subject.

DCN concerns over the possible imposition of strict restrictions on how councils collect and process waste have attracted significant media interest.

We have expressed fears over how the possible standardisation of the waste system could limit councils’ discretion to design a system tailored to the unique geographical needs of their area.

The concerns have been restated in the run-up to last Friday when the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs indicated it would publish its long-awaited response to a 2021 consultation on waste consistency.

This was expected to reveal the extent councils would be made to follow rules on the timetable for separate food waste collections, garden waste and on the frequency of waste collections overall.

However, many councils believe this could result in them having to buy far bigger waste vehicle fleets at considerable cost and offer few, if any, environment benefits. Councils also point out the impact of geography, with – to use one example – waste collection taking a different form in urban areas with large numbers of flats to sparsely populated rural areas.

The BBC began the spate of coverage on Monday last week.

The UK government’s plans to introduce consistent waste collection policies across England could prove chaotic and unworkable, councils have warned, began the BBC News website’s story.

“The idea that standardisation – a national bin service – is the way forward makes absolutely no sense,” Cllr Peter Fleming, leader of Sevenoaks District Council told it.

On Tuesday, Cllr Sarah Nelmes, the leader of Three Rivers District Council and DCN waste spokesperson, spoke at length about the issue on BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme (pictured).

“Our concerns are that local councils know better what the needs are locally,” said Cllr Nelmes. You can listen to her interview here (2 hours 46 minutes in).

Next up was the Daily Mail. ‘UK government’s plan for a ‘National Bin Service’ with SIX types of collection is unworkable ‘madness’, councils warn, was its headline.

Among those quoted in its story was Charlotte Paine, head of environmental and operational services at South Holland District Council.

“Much depends on where your waste goes, your local recycling facility, and how well they can deal with that. That’s where this consistency is going to fall down,” she said.

The story subsequently went on to appear in the Daily Telegraph. “District Councils’ Network estimates that implementing recycling changes will cost almost half-a-billion pounds a year for seven years,” it said.

This was soon followed up (again) by the Daily Mail. This carried a DCN statement in full. “It should also be remembered that household waste equates to less than 15% of the UK’s total waste generation,” we said. “What’s needed now is a truly whole-system approach that focusses on reducing waste at all its sources and influencing consumer behaviour, rather than concentrating on collection methods.”

Writing in Conservative Home, DCN Chairman Cllr Neil Clarke says District Clusters are coming together to deliver more efficient and effective public services across functional economic areas, – while maintaining local governance and accountability structures and closeness to the community.