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Cash boost of £75k to help homeless
20/1/10 Andrew Williams, leader of Dacorum Council, meets the financial advisers at Dacorum Horizons, Hemel Hempstead
COUNCIL chiefs are pumping an extra £75,000 into bed and breakfast accommodation as the number of homeless people rises in the economic downturn.
The cash injection brings the total set aside for emergency accommodation to more than £122,000, a meeting of Dacorum Borough Council’s cabinet was told during a discussion of the budget.
Director of finance Sally Marshall told councillors: “It’s become increasingly clear that the impact of the economic climate is starting to take a call on our homelessness budget.”
Meanwhile, councillors agreed a zero increase in council tax but increases in car park prices, waste collection costs, fees for taxi licences and hire of adventure playgrounds and the Old Town Hall.
Council house rents will increase by between 7.92 per cent and 9.27 per cent while garage rents will go up by 10p a week.
However, £300,000 has been set aside over two years to boost the Maylands Business Park, £200,000 to promote tourism and £160,000 for the Jubilee and the Olympics.
A further £425,000 will be spent on preparatory work for the redevelopment of Hemel Hempstead Civic Centre site.
Leader of the council Andrew Williams said: “This has been a very calm budget. It’s another year of council tax freeze, we’ve been able to invest in some important areas and it’s another year of no change in frontline services.
“Many councils would be very envious of being able to do those three things.”
The meeting was told the deal done to retain council housing rather than sell it to a housing association provided an ‘exciting opportunity’ to build new homes.
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Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Thursday 24 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
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hemeldave
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 03:48 PMMaybe the high rent increase is being used to make up for the council tax freeze so the well off can have a year on the cheap while the poor and less well off pay for them.
livewell
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 01:46 PMCouncil rents to increase between 7.92-9.27, while the government are doing all they can to keep mortgage interest low the council are hitting the lowest earners again with huge increases in rent and this isn't exactly an incentive for someone to come off benefits and get a job. They want to bring council rents in line with private rents, why? if people could afford private rents they would prefer to rent a nicely decorated well maintained house rather than a falling down wreck which the council owns (or should I say the banks now own), so council housing which is supposed to be for the poor and low earners is being slowly phased out. As from April under the new legislation a bedroom tax is to hit people with a one or more spare bedrooms, mainly the elderly and middle aged who kids have flown the nest, trouble is because of the economy the kids keep coming back, so not only do the elderly and middle aged have to move, after years of taking care of their homes and gardens and investing in their properties, they also have to find the funds to pay the moving costs, decorate and get new carpets and curtains, basically start all over again from scratch in properties that are badly maintained, plus the kids that need to come home will now find themselves homeless or could live on the sofa with the families then applying to the council to be rehoused due to overcrowding. After working with the elderly most have said they would like a little council bungalow to move into but there are so few in hemel they couldn't get one, the council should have built more of these over the years as a carrott not a stick for the pensioners to move into. I also have a neighbour who has been on the council scheme to move where they pay 750 towards moving costs to free up a bedroom (the only way she can afford it) for three years, maybe if the council had joined up thinking they could have freed up a lot more properties than they have. I can see it wont be long before the UK gets the american sytle tent cities at this rate and not just for mortgage payers who have lost their houses.
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