Letter to highlight town’s urgent housing concerns

Housing concerns affecting residents in temporary accommodation will be highlighted in a joint letter from Frome Town Council and Fair Frome. 

At a recent full council meeting, councillors agreed to work with Fair Frome to produce a letter outlining the key challenges faced by local residents living in temporary accommodation.

The letter will also stress the need for Frome to have a dedicated housing officer, after the former officer of 15 years was moved to a different role.

The decision followed a plea from Lenka Grimes, senior coordinator for Fair Frome, which runs the town’s food bank among other projects. She said the housing situation has ‘worsened’ since Frome Town Council declared a housing crisis in 2023.

Lenka said, “We have lots of people staying in temporary accommodation with no cooking facilities: babies and children. It is becoming a real issue. I know that Frome Town Council can’t do a lot about it but I would ask you again if you can write a letter to Somerset Council.

“It really is a crisis now. [There are] also people living in really bad conditions, mouldy properties; it’s affecting people’s health. It is really serious.”

She added that following a reorganisation at Somerset Council, the housing officer who had supported Frome has been moved to another position, leaving people with “nowhere to go”. She also said some residents are being assisted by housing officers in Scotland, with the impact felt by Fair Frome.

“This is really impacting people, people have got nowhere to go, they can’t get hold of anyone at the housing department,” said Lenka.

“This is someone that has been supporting us for 15 years, the housing officer, he knows Frome really well. It’s impacting families and therefore it is impacting Fair Frome because we are doing washing, we’re doing drying, people are having showers, we are having to provide cooking. It is really bad.”

Somerset councillor for Frome, Cllr Adam Boyden, said, “Somerset Council is doing something. The £3.3 million underspend in the revenue account is being used to buy around 15 properties around Somerset. Another thing is the 18 mainly social and affordable houses which are hopefully getting permission at North Parade car park at the back, that is a scheme initiated by the previous Mendip District Council, which is being taken forward.

“That is something directly in Frome which will increase the social housing stock, definitely. There has also been a letter written to the government urging the government to grant the council stronger powers and longer-term funding to build more affordable homes, so it is a national problem but we are looking at the various ways of doing that.”

Airbnbs

Lenka also suggested the council could look at putting a cap on the number of Airbnbs in the town and restricting the number of properties bought by people from outside the area as a way of increasing local housing stock.

However, the town council’s planning and development manager, Jane Llewellyn, said this is something other towns are addressing through their neighbourhood plans, and when Frome reviews its own plan this will be considered.

The deputy clerk agreed to work with Lenka on a joint letter to Somerset Council to highlight specific concerns, including the lack of a dedicated housing officer for Frome.