Councils Reject 70,000 Crisis Fund Requests

English councils turned down more than 70,000 applications for emergency housing assistance last year, despite £9 million of funding being handed back to government. Research by Inside Housing has revealed that while 153 councils underspent their discretionary housing payment allocations in 2013/14, others turned away thousands of applicants and still spent well over their allocated amount. Liverpool Council had a DHP pot of £2.06 million and received 14,355 requests for help, effectively giving it £143 per applicant. However, Westminster Council received £4.82 million of DHP funding but only 2,089 applications, equating to £2,038 per applicant. Overall, 19 councils received less than £200 per applicant - all of them in the north or the midlands. A total of 17 councils received more than £700 per applicant, all of them in London and the south east. Read more on Inside Housing.