A former Bedford Borough Council employee has accused the authority of fostering a defensive, and “inward-looking culture” that contributed to spiralling temporary accommodation costs and failures in handling complaints.
Speaking at Full Council (Wednesday, 26 November), Mike Hyden told councillors he believed the council had missed “significant opportunities to save millions of pounds. Money that is now desperately needed,” he said.
He said this was due to senior council officers and councillors creating an environment that “punishes curiosity, rewards defensiveness, and chokes accountability”
Read: Bedford Borough Council faces £58.6m medium-term gap as borrowing rises and savings tighten
Mr Hyden added that years of complaints being upheld and decisions overturned led him to question how “capable officers get things wrong so often”.
“The answer, in my opinion, is that it can only be cultural, a culture set by the elected members and senior officers,” he said.
Criticisims
But the council says the number of complaints it has received has dropped ‘significantly’ in recent years.
The council was also criticised for failing to provide information on the costs of supporting people without a local connection to the borough.
“The figures I’ve asked are not difficult to get,” Mr Hyden said, “The council doesn’t seem to want to know how much it spends supporting people who should be assisted by their own local authorities.
“I would estimate that as much as a third of those in accommodation funded by the council should have originally been housed by their own council.”
Read: Monthly column: Leading Bedford Borough Council through financial challenge – a call to action
Mr Hyden said when Bedford Borough Council moved away from gatekeeping in 2017, temporary accommodation numbers rose sharply, “more than 20 times the national increase for single homeless people”.
“Yet supported accommodation providers never adjusted, because the council could never admit its past gatekeeping and never engaged with the sector in honest conversation,” he said.
“As local demand for homelessness services shrank, voids grew. That was a success; that should have triggered a change in course in supported accommodation.
“But instead, providers simply filled those spaces with people from anywhere, and neighbouring councils are only too happy to offload high-needs individuals onto Bedford.
“The councillors didn’t seem to notice, didn’t intervene, and didn’t act, and now it’s temporary accommodation and supported housing, spending the financial chaos we all will be affected by. It would be convenient to call this incompetence.
“Unless more councillors actively dismantle the culture, it will persist. I watch councillors ask good questions in public only to tolerate evasive answers from council officers,” he said.
Read: Opinion: Bedford Borough councillors, please grow up
Too busy squabbling
Mr Hyden ended with a warning for those seeking re-election.
“Many of you will lose your seats to Reform at the next election,” he said, “As a collective, you did not fix the system, and have recently seemed too busy squabbling.
“Most of you do not get to the bottom of difficult questions. Few of you take the time to understand the council’s duties and service provision. You surrendered your constituents’ rights through inattention – and they notice
“I believe your inattention has created much of the anger that will unseat many of you.”
Following the meeting, a Bedford borough spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Bedford Borough Council met with Mr Hyden earlier this year.
“Following that meeting, an internal data gathering exercise was carried out to identify people that are known to the housing service, that had formerly been living in supported accommodation, and furthermore their circumstances prior to this in order to identify local connection.
“The analysis of the data gathered is underway.
“It is acknowledged that there have been historical complaints made to the council; however, the number of complaints received has significantly reduced in recent years due to a positive programme of service transformation and improvement within the housing service that has been published.
“Mr Hyden was happy with the approach discussed at the time, and we continue to welcome initiatives with him and others for partnership working.”
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
Note: Since leaving Bedford Borough Council, Mike Hyden has become an advocate for people seeking to escape homelessness. He runs a community interest company, Homelessness Best Practice CIC, delivering training courses and support to organisations and individuals.
Update: This article was updated at 10:13 on 1 December to add a footnote detailing Mike Hyden’s authority on homelessness and how local authorities work to support those in need.
