A new report to be presented to the council’s Executive Board on 18 November outlines how the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has awarded two extra grants for 2025/26 — one to help prevent and reduce rough sleeping and another to support children living in temporary accommodation.
The report also discloses that a previous overpayment of government funds has been identified and will be repaid in full.
The city’s homelessness pressures are described as “acute”, and the council says it remains heavily reliant on government funding to deliver its statutory housing duties and to meet the objectives set out in its Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Prevention Strategy 2025–2029.
Under the proposals, the council will formally accept and allocate a total of £2,447,992 in new revenue funding. The majority — £2,320,558 — comes from the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant (RSPRG), while £127,434is being added to the existing Homelessness Prevention Grant (HPG) to enhance services for children in temporary accommodation.
The RSPRG is a top-up to Nottingham’s earlier allocation of £2.6 million approved in July 2025, recognising the city as one of the local authorities facing the highest levels of homelessness and rough sleeping. The additional funds will expand prevention and recovery measures, support individuals with complex needs, and help the council prepare for winter 2025/26.
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The report sets out an extensive list of interventions to be financed through the new funding, including:
• Expanding staffing in the council’s Housing Solutions team to boost access to private rented accommodation and link assessments to support workers assisting those leaving prison, hospital, or mental health care.
• Re-establishing a centralised homelessness prevention gateway as a single access point to supported accommodation and oversight of placements.
• Continuing a prison-based accommodation worker role to identify offenders at risk of sleeping rough upon release.
• Funding a dedicated police resource to manage rough sleeping hotspots and provide a presence in supported housing to improve safety and reduce disorder and evictions.
• Creating a new wellbeing taskforce to handle crisis situations in supported accommodation, allowing staff to focus on helping residents move on to permanent homes.
• Establishing a new engagement team to maintain consistent contact with individuals from street homelessness through to resettlement.
• Appointing an officer to help voluntary, community and faith groups strengthen their capacity, develop bids and improve service quality.
• Procuring emergency accommodation, including specialist provision for high-risk offenders who are difficult to house safely.
• Purchasing 18 additional supported beds for people with mental health needs.
• Funding hotel placements for single homeless people at immediate risk of sleeping rough.
The smaller £127,000 Homelessness Prevention Grant top-up will be used to support families with children currently living in temporary accommodation. Nottingham has been identified among the local authorities facing the highest pressure in this area, with almost 1,300 children in temporary housing — including around 50 in hotels and 180 in nightly paid emergency units, some located outside the city boundary.
The funding will pay for a family liaison role to link families in temporary accommodation with local support services, along with mental health and wellbeing initiatives such as counselling and play therapy for children. It will also provide practical help in the form of travel, food and digital access vouchers. Housing and Children’s Services will jointly target the support at those most in need.
The council stresses that not accepting the grants would increase pressure on its own budgets and risk losing the opportunity to deliver these vital interventions. The funding is ringfenced and must be spent in line with government-approved programmes.
A separate element of the report notes that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government will recover an overpayment of £634,782 made to Nottingham City Council under the previous Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme. The overpayment was discovered through internal budget monitoring after the government mistakenly transferred funds for schemes also being paid directly to housing providers. The council set aside the money for repayment and confirmed that returning it will have no impact on service delivery or council budgets.
