CONWY COUNTY Borough Council spent more than £4million on temporary and emergency accommodation during the last financial year.

An application to the council under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) has revealed that the local authority spent £4,358,626 on these accommodation services in the 2023/24 financial year.

Emergency accommodation refers to short-term housing for people experiencing homelessness, while temporary accommodation is a longer-term solution for people who are waiting for permanent housing.

In March 2023, Welsh Government figures showed 318 households in Conwy were in temporary accommodation.

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This was at a rate of 59.8 per 100,000 households, second in North Wales behind Denbighshire in both figures.

The same FOI revealed the estimated council expenditure for the financial year 2024/25 was reduced by almost £800,000 to £3,597,160.

Conwy Council's cabinet member for housing, Cllr Emily Owen, revealed in May this year that 24 children in the county were living in bed and breakfast accommodation.

Cllr Owen said this number had been reduced from 90 last year.

“Rents are still incredibly high. Support services are diminishing. People are struggling with their mental health,” she said.

“With the current housing crisis and increasing complex cases, it means the team are responding to a lot more challenging circumstances, and a lot of that can easily go unnoticed because the crisis is avoided.

"A cost-of-living crisis is going on with bills continuing to escalate, and there is such a range of reasons why people will find themselves homeless, so can we all do all we can to try and dispel the myths about homelessness and really help us break that stigma.”