Croydon Council is intensifying its efforts to combat homelessness with a new strategy focusing on demand management and improved customer experience. The Housing Assurance Board met on Monday, March 9, 2026, to discuss the borough's approach to tackling homelessness, aligning with the national strategy to end homelessness.
Beatrice Cingtho-Taylor, Director of Homelessness Prevention and Accommodation, presented an overview of Croydon's current position, highlighting significant demand pressures. The borough has seen a substantial increase in households seeking homeless support, with a 50% rise in applications in 2024/25, averaging 400 per month. This surge is attributed to affordability pressures in the private rented sector, shortages of social and affordable housing, and limited capacity to move households from temporary to settled accommodation. The London housing market context further intensifies these pressures, with higher accommodation and procurement costs.
Despite the increased demand, there has been a notable improvement in performance, with new placements into temporary accommodation (TA) falling to 13% of all applications, a significant reduction from the previous year's average of 25%. The council is actively promoting self-service housing options and has implemented an appointment only
service to manage demand more effectively. Initiatives such as call before you serve
are also in place to work with private landlords and prevent evictions. The report indicated that 56% of households exit TA into social housing, with 34% due to occupancy checks and license breaches.
Addressing the challenges within temporary accommodation, the council has developed an Approved Landlord Scheme to ensure rigorous standards and has ended the use of commercial hotels and shared facilities for extended periods. The report also detailed actions taken to procure quality accommodation, such as at Zodiac House and Red Clover.
Improvements in customer experience were also highlighted. The service has transitioned to an appointment-only model, with waiting times now around two weeks, a significant reduction from previous months. Telephone response times have also improved, with a pilot program involving the corporate contact centre successfully resolving approximately 66% of calls. Efforts are underway to further train the contact centre staff to handle more complex cases.
The meeting also touched upon the national A National Plan to End Homelessness,
which aims to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. This strategy emphasizes prevention, long-term sustainable change, and immediate action to tackle the worst forms of homelessness. Croydon's efforts align with this national agenda, focusing on early intervention and improved support for vulnerable individuals and families.
Discussions also covered the financial implications, with the Housing General Fund budget for 2026-27 showing an increase in the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant. The grant for homelessness prevention has increased from £6.561m in 2025-26 to £7.53m in 2026-27. This funding is tied to national targets and achieving specific outcomes, though the precise projected impact of this increase on the council's ability to address homelessness was not detailed in the meeting information. The council is investing in financial modeling tools to better understand the savings generated by reduced TA placements and is setting specific savings targets for the team.
For more details on the meeting, refer to the Public reports pack.
