A TEMPORARY increase in families housed in bed and breakfast accommodation has put pressure on Bournemouth council’s homelessness budget.

But Bournemouth council’s leader has insisted they are on top of the problem and said the council has no intention of returning to the days when large numbers of households were placed in expensive guest houses. He added the council was currently paying for just four households to stay in such accommodation.

Cllr John Beesley was asked about the numbers placed in bed and and breakfast accommodation by Labour Cllr Beryl Baxter who spotted a £10,000 overspend in the council’s budget monitoring statements.

He said: “The issue of bed and breakfasts is one that this authority had significant problems with some years ago.

“If you go back far enough we had a budget in excess of £1million for this. Clearly that is unsustainable and the Government put a stop to it.

“Bournemouth stepped up to that challenge significantly and our bed and breakfast costs are relatively insignificant today.

“The overspend of £10,000 within a month does draw attention to itself as a result of that but officers are confident that we will be on track for the year end.”