£18m Homeless Housing Plan Names Harrogate as Biggest Gap

North Yorkshire Council’s Executive votes on Tuesday 15 September on an expanded £18.1 million plan to buy and convert 112 temporary homes for households facing homelessness. The council’s own report says the biggest shortage of that accommodation is in the Harrogate area.

Not one of the first 20 homes delivered under the programme is in Harrogate. The report to the Executive breaks the 20 down as:

• Scarborough: 11
• Norton: 6
• Catterick: 2
• Ripon: 1
• Harrogate: 0

The report says there is “an under provision in certain locations across North Yorkshire, particularly within the Harrogate area, but also within Selby and still within Scarborough”. It adds that the need is sharpest for one and two bedroom homes “in particular in the Harrogate locality”, where one-bedroom accommodation is difficult to find on the market. The current pipeline projects assume conversions of existing buildings rather than open-market purchases. Our Harrogate house prices page shows what the local market looks like.

Why the plan has grown from £11.6m to £18.1m

The Executive first approved the programme in June 2024: 90 homes for £11,600,000, with 30 of them to be delivered by housing associations. Two years on, none of those 30 housing association homes has been delivered, and the council now proposes to buy all of the accommodation itself.

The revised business case asks for a total budget of £18,098,809 for 112 homes. The changes are:

• 22 more homes than the 90 originally planned, because households are staying in temporary accommodation longer
• the 30 housing association homes move onto the council’s own books
• more homes bought through the council’s general fund, because a cap limiting rent to 80% of market rent makes many schemes unviable in the council housing account
• the average cost per council-delivered home has fallen from £178,000 to £162,000, saving £1,706,000 against earlier assumptions

Beyond the 20 homes already occupied, 40 more properties the council owns or has acquired are being brought up to standard, with 11 due to complete in 2026/27 and 29 in 2027/28. About £1.94 million of government Local Authority Housing Fund money supports 16 of the homes.

What it replaces: hotels and B&Bs

The point of the programme is to stop paying for emergency hotel and bed and breakfast rooms. The report costs 112 B&B beds at £3,106,880 a year gross, or £2,712,240 after housing benefit subsidy, and puts the potential savings and avoided costs at up to £2,712,240 once all 112 homes are delivered.

The council’s announcement says spending on temporary accommodation rose “from just over £500,000 in 2019/20 to more than £2.1 million in 2022/23”, and calls the plan an expansion of temporary accommodation “by almost 25 per cent”. Cllr Simon Myers, the executive member for culture, arts and housing, said: “Everyone deserves access to safe, secure and suitable accommodation when they are facing difficult circumstances.”

What it means for you

If the Executive approves the budget on Tuesday, individual purchases will be signed off by council officers rather than coming back to public meetings, so the numbers above are the last full picture before delivery. For Harrogate, the report says there will be a need to “target key locations”, and the town’s need for one and two bedroom homes is named in the case for the money. Whether Harrogate acquisitions actually follow is the thing to watch in next year’s delivery figures: after two years, the town the report calls the biggest gap still has none of the homes.

Sources

• Updated Temporary Accommodation Business Case, report to the Executive, 15 September 2026 (budget, unit numbers, locations, costs and savings)
• Executive agenda, 15 September 2026 (item 7)
• More homes earmarked to support people facing homelessness, North Yorkshire Council, 7 September 2026 (spending history, 25 per cent figure, Cllr Myers quote)