A council trying to tackle its rising temporary accommodation crisis has invested further in its own stock as part of a multi-million pound programme.

The number of people reliant on short-term emergency housing in the Medway Towns has ballooned in recent years with more than 3,000 people requesting help between April last year and March.

Vince Maple, the local authority’s Labour leader, says the scale of the problem, with projected costs of £200m to council coffers over the next 30 years, means his administration simply must act and “do something” now.

At a Medway Council cabinet meeting on Tuesday (April 8), councillors granted permission to purchase more homes as part of a £42million investment scheme agreed in January last year.

It approved proposals to purchase two blocks of flats, totalling 130 units, in a move aimed at offsetting the spiralling costs of using costly private providers.

A report, presented to the meeting, outlined how the authority would still need to provide the accommodation - even if it didn’t purchase these units - and increased demand was making the more costly option even more expensive.

Cllr Louwella Prenter (Lab), portfolio holder for housing and homelessness, said purchasing its own stock provided the best value for money.

She added: “The more we purchase our own temporary accommodation, the more money we save for the taxpayers of Medway in the long-term.

“The council is still seeing significant numbers of households approach for housing advice, with over 3000 approaching between April last year and March this year.

“We’re reliant upon the costly nightly-paid accommodation, and owning our own properties will not only reduce the out-goings over time but also gives the council an asset.

“Officers will negotiate hard but fair to get the best possible outcome for taxpayers.”

The full processes to purchase the two blocks is expected to be by completed by October this year, now it has been approved.

Deputy council leader Teresa Murray (Lab) said the authority could not ignore the growing demand for temporary accommodation.

She said: “We have recognised we’re in a very difficult situation with no sign of let up - in fact more people are in need of this sort of help from all sections of society, all ages.

“Having these properties within our own gift is going to be much better and much easier to manage for everyone.”

The report outlined how officers predict, if the council made no changes, the authority would spend £200million over the next 30 years on temporary accommodation from private providers.

It says if the council chose not to invest in providing its own accommodation it would spend that sum but have no asset as a result.

In January last year the council approved funding to purchase 150 units of accommodation so it would be less reliant on private providers.

Since then, 28 properties have been purchased for temporary accommodation - 11 single properties and two blocks of flats, one of three flats and another of 14.

The report also said the acquisition of another 39 properties had been approved and is going through the legal processes.

Council leader Vince Maple (Lab) said the properties purchased so far were already saving the council money.

He added: “I wish we were in a situation where we didn’t need temporary accommodation, certainly not to the scale we need to purchase and secure.

“There are two choices - do something or do nothing. This is not a do nothing administration.

“This work will lead dividends and, with my finance portfolio hat on, we know already, with the properties we’ve already bought as part of this scheme, we’re seeing savings.

“That’s the right thing to do, both in terms of services but for taxpayers as well.

“This is a big investment, but, as the report says, if we did nothing we would spend £200 million and all we’d have is a receipt.

“With this, we’ll have properties we own which we may need for some time as temporary accommodation.”

Officers say the total cost of privately renting 150 units of temporary accommodation would come to £1,718,826 per night.

That’s compared with £1,044,076 per night if it bought them and ran them itself, paying off borrowing over 50 years.

Cabinet members also hope increasing their own stock of temporary homes will better enable the council to control and improve the standard and influence private providers to follow suit.

Medway Council approved the recommendation to progress with purchasing the two blocks within the remaining funds from the £42million set aside for the temporary accommodation scheme.