Maidstone has had almost 1,000 people placed in the area from other boroughs’ housing registers over the past five years, figures have revealed.

Despite overseeing the building of more affordable homes than anywhere else in Kent, Maidstone is still struggling to look after those threatened with homelessness.

Data gathered for a report for the Kent and Medway Economic Partnership has revealed that over the past 12 years, the borough of Maidstone has seen almost three times the number of affordable homes provided within its boundaries compared with the nearest other Kent borough, Dartford.

Yet the council is still spending around £4m a year placing residents threatened with homelessness in temporary accommodation.

The authority recently held a symposium with industry leaders to investigate ways of addressing the issue.

Cllr Simon Wales (Lib Dem), the cabinet member for housing and homelessness, said there was a “perfect storm” of factors contributing to the housing crisis such as political change, planning reform, budget pressures, construction price increases and a slow-down in house sales.

But there was an urgent need to address the problems.

He said: “Poor quality housing is linked to poor health, which in turn leads to increases in other public sector costs and services, so the sooner we can move residents out of temporary accommodation into permanent homes the better for our communities as a whole, as well as those residents directly affected.”

At the meeting were representatives from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Golding Homes, West Kent Housing Association, Bellway, Fernham Homes, Martin Arnold Associates, Red Loft, and DHA Planning.

The key takeaway was the need for more flexibility from all partners, as well as clearer communications about the benefits of new housing development to help build public consensus and support.

Cllr Wales said: “It’s encouraging to see the sense of commitment and shared responsibility across the housing industry evident at this meeting; we firmly believe that working together in this way will help to address this urgent issue more effectively.”

But had added: ”The work is not done until every resident has access to safe, affordable housing.”

One issue not specifically addressed at the meeting was that of other boroughs placing their housing-need residents within Maidstone.

It is an issue that Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) had previously written about to the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner.

He told her: “Some [properties] are being purchased and rented by local authorities and used by councils from London and elsewhere to accommodate people on their housing registers.”

He argued this had the negative effect of “displacing these individuals from their friends, families and other local support networks in the process”.

He added: “This has an impact on Maidstone council and other local resources.

“This additional pressure on local infrastructure is increasingly imposing a negative and unsustainable impact on local health, social care and education services, as well as existing town centre communities, businesses and the visitor economy.

He said: “Recently, 140 properties were purchased by one London borough alone [Bromley] and they have an intention to acquire a further 150 properties to place their homeless families.

“There are no plans to ever return these households to their own borough.“

Housing authorities are required by law to notify host boroughs when making such placements, although Cllr Harwood alleged that such notifications were “inconsistent”.

According to the notifications, Maidstone took in 986 people from other boroughs over the past five years, with the London boroughs of Newham, Bromley and Greenwich among those placing their residents here.

Cllr Harwood received a response from Baroness Taylor, the under-secretary of state for housing, on Ms Rayner’s behalf.

She said that out-of-borough placements should only be used as a “last resort”, but added that sometimes they were inevitable if there was a lack of suitable accommodation in the home borough, which was particularly often the case in London.

However, Maidstone does place people outside its own borders.

In the same five-year period, 44 Maidstone people were housed by the authority outside the borough.

Cllr Harwood said: “You need to differentiate between those whom we owe a statutory duty to accommodate and those that we have no homelessness legislation duty towards, but still try to assist.

“Maidstone council’s adopted policy is quite clear that for those owed a housing duty, the authority will try to place them within the borough, but where this cannot be achieved, where for example there are special circumstances such as providing accommodation for larger families, then the council may need to look to neighbouring areas such as Medway.

We only assisted people that wanted to take up that offer

“We are acutely aware of how disruptive to education, work and other networks such a decision can be and therefore, such a course is not taken lightly.”

However, for those helped through the council’s rough-sleeping initiative, whom it may not have a duty to house, the authority could look wider afield.

Cllr Harwood said: “As they are predominantly single households, we can be more flexible about exploring alternative solutions, which might include their moving to more distant parts of the country with less housing demand.”

He admitted the council had helped people find accommodation in Newcastle.

“But,” he said: “We only assisted people that wanted to take up that offer.

“So, it would be wrong to say that Maidstone would never help people move across the country under specific circumstances, but that is very different from giving families no choice in the matter, which is the controversial practice operated by some councils.”