Council officers are facing a “huge challenge” to meet a deadline for purchasing homes using money from Right to Buy Sales.

Southampton City Council’s cabinet approved the proposal to spend up to £5million to buy 24 properties last month.

These homes will be for families in need of temporary accommodation, reducing the reliance on expensive hotels and bed and breakfast rooms.

The acquisitions will be funded by Right to Buy sales from 2019/20, which the authority must spend before the end of the current financial year.

If the March 31 deadline is missed, any outstanding money will need to be paid with interest to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Members of the council’s overview and scrutiny management committee expressed reservations over the local authority’s ability to hit this deadline at a meeting on Thursday, November 21.

City council director of housing Jamie Brenchley said the acquisition process was “in flight” with identified properties under offer.

Thornhill ward member Cllr Yvonne Frampton said it was a “strange situation to be in”, having had the money from the council house sales for several years.

Debbie Ward, executive director of residents’ services, said the pandemic had an impact, while there had also been issues with progressing projects which had been allocated money, such as at the protracted Townhill Park regeneration.

She said the pilot approach of property acquisitions was picked up quickly after the Labour government introduced new temporary rules this summer.

These changes allowed 100 per cent of Right to Buy receipts to be spent on property acquisitions. Previously, this was capped at 50 per cent.

Cllr Frampton said it remained difficult to see how the council had got into the position it found itself in.

“The reality of it is if we don’t spend it by the end of March, we then have to pay £1.49million in interest so then it is going to cost us money,” Cllr Frampton said.

Ms Ward said she did not have a “straightforward answer”, adding it had not been spent for a range of different projects with problems related to securing development partners and a range of other delays.

Cllr Frampton asked “how likely” was it that all of the money would be spent in time.

“It is a huge challenge,” Ms Ward said. “Jamie and his team are well aware of how huge of a challenge it is.

“I believe the framework and the management and the monitoring and the drive that Jamie’s team have put in, now working with Savills externally, who also know the deadline we are working to and know that we have already identified the properties to purchase, then we have as good a chance to get that money spent as we would have had.”

National firm Savills is carrying out the legal conveyancing aspect of property surveys, Mr Brenchley said.

Committee member and Banister and Polygon ward councillor Steve Leggett said he was “very concerned” about the “tight timescales”.

Purchasing 24 properties is expected to deliver annual savings of £657,000 through the reduced use of bed and breakfast accommodation.

A report to cabinet last month said there had been a 64 per cent increase in the number of homeless households approaching the council since 2019/20.

Deputy leader Cllr Simon Letts was asked if he believed purchasing 24 homes matched the scale of the problem.

He said: “No, of course not, but it is a step in the right direction.

“The 24 properties will enable us to take 24 families out of very expensive hotel accommodation and put them into something that is better for them and their children, generally these are people with children.”

The cabinet member for finance and corporate services said it also saved money for the public purpose.

Cllr Letts added: “It is not the solving of a problem but it helps. That’s the way I would describe it.”