Sefton Council spent over £229,000 housing people at Britannia Hotels in Southport during Covid

Sir Ron Watson asked a question at last weeks budget meeting as to how much the Council spent on housing homeless people at Britannia Hotels in Southport during Covid

"Will the Cabinet Member confirm that the arrangements with the Britannia Hotel Group have now been terminated and will she confirm the amount of money that they have been paid up to the present time?

“Sefton Council did not have a formal agreement with the Britannia Hotel Group, who own Pontins, the Prince of Wales Hotel and the Scarisbrick Hotel. However, due to the Government’s ‘Everyone In’ initiative to get rough sleepers off the streets during the Covid 19 pandemic, the Council’s Housing Options service did use these hotels, amongst others, to provide interim accommodation for households that are eligible up until 30 September 2021.

Sefton Council’s Housing Options service have not placed any other households at these hotels since that date

Expenditure with Britannia Hotels from March 2020 to August 2021:

Britannia Hotels Ltd –

The Prince of Wales

Hotel £174,135.66

Britannia Hotels Ltd –

The Scarisbrick Hotel

£ 21,352.38 

Pontins £33,625.00

Grand Total £229,113.04

Where possible, only single homeless people are placed in B&B. Housing options always aims to provide family households requiring interim accommodation with cooking facilities, which were available at Pontins during various periods of lockdown.”