Council spending £48k a week on temporary housing

THE number of people placed in temporary accommodation in Carmarthenshire has fallen considerably - but the costs haven’t.

- RICHARD YOULE

Like all local authorities, Carmarthenshire Council helps people who are at risk of becoming homeless and this involves bed and breakfast and other forms of short-term accommodation.

Demand has soared in Wales in recent years although the number of people placed in temporary housing has remained steady since the second half of 2023, a report by Audit Wales in July found.

Carmarthenshire Council spent just over £2.51m on temporary accommodation in 2024-25 - the equivalent of £48,354 per week - supporting 217 households.

The previous year, 2023-24, it spent £2.88m accommodating 287 households and the year before that it spent £2.6m helping 363 households.

The figures, provided following a Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, also revealed that one person spent 25 months in bed and breakfast accommodation during that time.