Basildon Council is spending almost £3 million per year on housing homeless people in temporary accommodation, something its leader describes as an "absolute travesty" for vulnerable residents and the council.

Cllr Gavin Callaghan revealed the spending figure, insisting that spending is a "number one concern in terms of the finance brief."

It comes after, at a cabinet meeting last October 12, members of the council unanimously passed plans calling for the adoption of a policy which will see those residing in temporary accommodation paying a weekly charge on a trial basis; how much dependent on whether they are living in self-contained or non-self-contained housing.

Cllr Callaghan also said the council seeing the highest number of people coming to the authority as homeless in the council's history.

Speaking on Facebook Cllr Callaghan said: "We have a particular issue, as a lot of councils have right now, with temporary accommodation.

"You'll all remember that when Liz Truss crashed the British economy we ended up in a situation where mortgage prices rose, the rent prices rose, and inflation soared to 11 per cent.

"Even though inflation has come down prices are still rising at two per cent, two and a half per cent and in some cases they are rising faster than inflation as well.

"That's had a really negative impact on the housing market, a lot of people who get up every day, who go to work, who are doing the right thing are now unable to afford their mortgage or are now unable to afford the rent prices that we are seeing in this borough.

"As a consequence, we are seeing a lot more people who are presenting as homeless than have ever presented before to the council. We are duty bound when they meet criteria, if they have children for example, to do what we can to support them.

"That means they end up in hotels and bed and breakfasts and that costs the council at the moment about £2.7million pounds a year, in hotel and bed and breakfasts costs.

"That is an absolute travesty for the people who are in a really vulnerable and desperate situation because they have lost their homes and have to live in hotels but also for the council because that £2.7million that we are spending should be being spent on the bins, cleaning up the estates, cutting the hedges, cutting the grass more frequently, making sure the borrow.

"My number one concern in terms of the finance brief is to reduce that temporary accommodation costs, so we treat people better, we give them a better chance at getting a home that's right for them and their family, but we also make sure that we are then spending taxpayer cash on the things that matter and we can see, like cleaning up our estate sand making the place a better place to live."