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A Preston charity which carries out extensive work with rough sleepers and the city’s homeless community is facing a potentially devastating funding cutback.
The Foxton says it will have to shutter its Day Centre in Fox Street and dramatically slim-down staffing at one of its residential hostels if it loses a six-figure sum under proposed council changes to how homelessness is tackled in the city.
Re-opened in December 2022 with the ribbon cut by council leader councillor Matthew Brown, with the support of Preston City Council and Preston Methodist Action, The Foxton’s chief exec says the Fox Street shelter is now facing closure again as a revised funding settlement from April 2025 would leave the charity with only enough funds for one staff member compared to the three it has now.
Read more: An insight into what life is like on Preston’s streets for the homeless
Jeff Marsh, chief executive of The Foxton, said: “We dealt with more than 450 people at the Fox Street shelter last year and provided over 11,000 meals to rough sleepers.
“We also offer practical support, food, clothing and a place to have a shower.
“The Day Centre has also become a hub not just for our teams but also for our services in the city such as Shelter providing housing advice and a GP and nurses providing health services, mental health support via the local NHS and much more.
“We were hoping to build on this for the future however the city council proposal puts this in real jeopardy.”
Mr Marsh said he had been told the proposal would reduce funding to The Foxton by around £500,000-a-year, something he says the charity does not have the means to replace.
Alongside the reduction aimed at the Day Centre the charity has also been told it will have to enter into a competitive grants process for the Kenmure Lodge 14-bed hostel near Moor Park which it currently operates.
Mr Marsh said this would likely reduce the staffing and funding would be for running two facilities rather than one – but with no increase resulting in a reduction in funds to The Foxton if they are successful in bidding for the tender to run the hostels. He said he was concerned about the levels of staffing which would be in place and the ‘complex needs’ he said the team faced when helping people who used the hostel.
The cutback – due to come in from the end of March 2025 – comes when the government says it has announced a record level of funding for local councils to tackle rising levels of homelessness in towns and cities across the UK.
Figures earlier this year, the latest available, showed Preston had seen a surge in people sleeping on the streets and it was at its highest level since records began.
A letter, seen by Blog Preston, has been sent by The Foxton to every councillor urging them to re-consider and scrutinise the proposals which The Foxton says would have a ‘devastating’ impact on its services which have been in partnership with the city council for the past seven years.
Mr Marsh has also invited all councillors to visit the Day Centre on Thursday 9 January to see for themselves the difference the centre and its services makes.
‘World has changed’
Preston City Council issued a rebuttal to Mr Marsh saying the Foxton and all partners who work with the city’s homeless had long-called for additional accommodation options and the council was now acting to deploy its funding to make this happen.
The city council is currently preparing to open a new night shelter close to the Flag Market – announced in December last year and due to open towards the end of January 2025 as the council prepares to sign a lease on the vacant shop unit in Market Street.
Chief executive of the city council, Adrian Phillips, said: “Preston City Council firmly believes that any individual sleeping on the streets in our city is unacceptable and we remain committed to getting people off the streets and into secure and safe accommodation.
“National challenges around homelessness and housing have risen dramatically in recent years and we work hard with our community partners to stem the tide of increasing numbers of homelessness in Preston.
“As such, the Council is reviewing and re-evaluating all current support and services available to rough sleepers in order to provide more, and the best possible options for vulnerable people. Currently there is no emergency off the streets provision in the city and the Council have made the opening a new Night Shelter service a priority project, supported as part of a wider package, by the limited funding it has available, to tackle the problem.
“The Night Service will also provide longer term help and solutions through gender specific pathways to more permanent housing and work with clients to break the cycle of an ‘on the street lifestyle’.
“We will still support with a funded post assisting the transition from night service to day service. We are considering options that are linked more closely to other available support packages, and the aim is to double accommodation options with support, with one specifically for women alongside the 14 bedspaces the Night Service will deliver.
“We will continue to work with community partners, who will have the opportunity to bid for commissioned projects to support rough sleepers. Funding is not currently committed beyond March 2025 and we are waiting for a formal commitment to funding from Government for 2025/26. The Night Shelter is currently being supported by the help of grant funding under the Rough Sleeper Initiative government grant scheme, and the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).”
Funding pot to tackle homelessness is due to be larger, but not for Foxton
A government announcement before Christmas said almost £1billion of funding was being handed to councils in England to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness.
Minister for Homelessness, Rushanara Ali, said: “We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory that has left far too many families trapped in temporary accommodation with no end in sight and soaring numbers of people sleeping rough on our streets.
“This is the dire legacy we have inherited as a government, and we are fully determined to take immediate action. Our funding will not only support councils delivering vital services that meet the needs of their communities but also pave the way for our long-term plan to get us back on track to end homelessness once and for all.”
However, the city council said they were only due to receive £900,000 – the same amount as last year – under the Rough Sleeper Initiative. It is not yet known how much the city council will have in its wider war chest to tackle homelessness as Town Hall chiefs work out how much has come through from the government’s new funding commitment. In comparison, Blackpool is receiving a £875,000 uplift year-on-year in its funding from government to tackle homelessness.
Blog Preston understands The Foxton has written to Sir Mark Hendrick MP to urge him to intervene in the councils decision and question what funding has been received by the Town Hall, given the recent government announcement of record levels of funding. Sir Mark held a conference earlier this year which brought together organisations in the city to look at how homelessness and the housing crisis could be tackled.
Their decision to cut back funding to The Foxton the council say is driven by the rising number of women sleeping rough and the increased need for gender-specific accommodation and options to be available – and the continuity of the Rough Sleepers Initiative funding, which is what is partially used to support The Foxton’s services at present, never being certain beyond Spring 2025.
The city council also say they ‘carried out a consultation and listened to service users [rough sleepers] who said they wanted more accommodation options along with the Night Service’.
Asked whether they had broken the partnership agreement with The Foxton and others a city council spokesperson said: “We are doing the opposite and extending our partnership network. For example, the health interventions the Foxton mentioned only came about due to the funding the City Council awarded to kick start a pilot project.
“This project will continue, and our health colleagues are looking at alternative venues to encourage rough sleepers into mainstream options to help break the cycle. Since the RSI started seven years ago, the world has changed, Covid put homelessness on wider agendas such as health, probation services and social care provision. Partnership working has widened and it’s timely to bring in other partners with specialisms to support the City Council in delivering a prevention and recovery model. Funding is still being made available just at a reduced rate so we can increase what the wider partnership wants.”
Mr Marsh, who is due to step down as Foxton chief executive in Spring next year, said he was concerned by the way the city council was conducting itself. He claims he was told of the funding cut decision in an abrupt 10-minute meeting with limited opportunity for a response.
He told Blog Preston: “Our charity understands that the city council may wish to move in a different direction with the current RSI service however I am concerned about lack of consultation with service users and with partners about this. The RSI funding was sought in partnership initially by three organisations PCC, Foxton and Methodist Action with PCC as the accountable body and has operated for the seven years.
“I see the lack of a partnership approach adopted by Preston City Council as not in keeping with the principles of the RSI funding as outlined in annexe B of the funding agreement that they have with government.
“As I said at the recent conference Sir Mark Hendrick organised, in my view homelessness for this group of people can only be resolved through joint working and a cross-cutting approach across both tiers of local government and with our colleagues in health and criminal justice. I think that Preston’s approach would be stronger if a wide range of agencies had been consulted and a thoroughly joined up approach had been forged.”
He also said the city’s ‘Anchor Board’, of which The Foxton is a part of and was unveiled in September, has only met once since then and he’s heard no more about it.
Mr Marsh said he was thankful to all the individuals, organisations and businesses who had supported The Foxton during the Christmas period and also highlighted the hundreds of people who slept out at Deepdale in November 2023 and raised nearly £45,000 to help with the operation of the Day Centre.
Blog Preston understands the proposal for funding for The Foxton and how homelessness is tackled will see a decision ultimately made by councillor Nweeda Khan who is cabinet member for communities and social justice and Foxton chiefs are due to meet with senior Town Hall officials in early January to discuss whether a new way forward can be found.
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