Worthing's homelessness budget is forecast £1.5m over, Adur's £76,000, per the councils' Q1 report. A scrutiny paper for 4 November gives Adur £760,000.
Worthing Borough Council expects to spend £1.507 million more than it budgeted on homelessness this year. Adur District Council expects to go £76,000 over.
Those are the figures in the councils’ own first-quarter budget monitoring report, which went to the Joint Strategic Committee on 8 September. (Revenue Monitoring Q1 2026/27, Joint Strategic Committee, 8 September 2026)
The overspend is back in the news because councillors on the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee will discuss it at 6.30pm on Wednesday 4 November. A report from the committee’s finance working group summarises the September figures. (Budget Scrutiny Update, Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 4 November 2026)
Two papers, two figures for Adur
The working group report says homelessness and temporary accommodation were the lead pressures, “with a £1.5 million overspend in Worthing and £760,000 overspend in Adur”. Added together, that comes to about £2.3 million.
The Q1 report it is summarising gives Adur’s figure as £76,000, not £760,000. It says so in three places:
- the main table of forecast variances, where Adur’s homelessness line reads 76 (in thousands)
- the text, which says “the projected annual overspend in Adur is £76k and in Worthing is £1,507k”
- the appendix on services with big variances, which repeats “an overspend of £76k” for Adur
On the councils’ own monitoring figures, the combined homelessness overspend is about £1.58 million, not £2.3 million. The working group paper does not say where its Adur figure came from. We will update this page if the councils correct either document.
The difference matters less for Adur’s books than it sounds. Adur is forecast to finish the year £1.864 million under budget overall. Worthing is forecast to need £3.697 million of its Exceptional Financial Support, the government permission to borrow for day-to-day spending. (Q1 report, paragraph 4.4)
More people asking for help
The pressure comes from demand. Between April and June, 271 households approached the two councils and were owed a prevention or relief duty under homelessness law. That compares with 231 in the same three months of 2025.
| April to June | Adur | Worthing | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 62 | 169 | 231 |
| 2026 | 82 | 189 | 271 |
Across the whole of 2025/26, 1,007 households came to the councils for help: 277 in Adur and 730 in Worthing. That was 133 more than the year before.
Spending is falling, but not fast enough
Gross spending on temporary accommodation is actually down on last year. The report credits cheaper contracts and more homelessness prevented before families lose their homes.
| April to June gross spend | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adur | £557,040 | £431,580 | down 22.5% |
| Worthing | £2,129,520 | £1,861,840 | down 12.6% |
The report says that is “at an insufficient level to forecast balanced budgets”. The problem is how long households stay. The councils cannot move people on because there is so little social or affordable rented housing, “especially in Worthing as a non-stockholding authority”. A non-stockholding council owns no council homes of its own, so it relies on housing associations to provide social housing.
Between April and June:
- 21 Worthing households moved from temporary accommodation into social housing, up from 10 a year earlier
- 4 Adur households did the same, down from 13
- 9 Worthing households and 2 in Adur moved into private rented homes
- 11 Worthing households were evicted from supported housing, and 3 in Adur
Section 21 “no fault” evictions have been abolished under the Renters’ Rights Act. The report says that has not yet cut the number of people coming to the councils. Officers expect to handle older section 21 cases until February 2027, the last date for court proceedings and bailiffs.
Where the councils do well
The housing team prevents homelessness more often than most. When it worked with a household before they lost their home, it secured somewhere to live in 62% of cases in both Adur and Worthing. The latest figures for England put that at 54%, and the South East at 52%.
The councils must also produce a Homelessness Action Plan and a Long Term Rough Sleeper Action Plan by 1 December.
What it means for you
- If you are at risk of losing your home, contact the councils’ housing team as early as you can. The figures show they find somewhere for most people they reach before an eviction. Start at the councils’ housing advice page.
- If you want to follow the money, the scrutiny committee meets in public at 6.30pm on Wednesday 4 November. The agenda and papers are online.
- The next update should come with the second-quarter monitoring report, due at the Joint Strategic Committee on Tuesday 10 November. It will show whether the overspend has grown or shrunk since June.
The councils are also reviewing who qualifies for social housing to help bring temporary accommodation costs down. We reported the proposed changes here. The cost of homelessness is the main reason Worthing needs emergency government support next year, as we reported earlier this month.
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