A large number of homeless families are putting a strain on Conwy County Council, says the leader.

Speaking at full council this morning, Cllr Charlie McCoubrey made his announcement at the virtual meeting and said housing was under severe pressure.

Cllr McCoubrey revealed there were currently 265 families or households living in temporary accommodation in the county and said the problem had been helped with Welsh Government funding.

But the leader also said homelessness was not going away and the council needed more funds to tackle the issue in the new financial year.

“Housing, there are severe pressures there,” he said.

“We’ve around 265 households in temporary accommodation. It is really important for me that we remember these are real people. We use the phrase ‘homeless’, and I think it conjures up an image of street homelessness. That’s not something we’ve ever had a massive problem with in Conwy. Fortunately it has been quite low numbers.

“These are everyday, normal people like you and I who for whatever reason lost their accommodation. It’s quite heartbreaking when you get emails from people who have lived in the town for 20 years, both working and who can’t get accommodation – emails saying never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be asking the council for help.”

He added: “That is challenging, and again it comes with a cost. We were fortunate enough to receive a hardship fund in the last year of about £1.5m to meet that cost. That fund runs out at the start of the next financial year. We estimate the cost will be around £2m because again that problem will not go away overnight.

“So we will continue to ask Welsh Government to extend that fund or to replace it with something else so we can continue to offer support to these unfortunate individuals.”

Cllr McCoubrey also said COVID levels had dropped steadily, down to 365 per 100,000 people, which is lower than the Welsh average of 651. But he said long-term damage from the pandemic was putting pressure on social services.

“But it is clear that, regardless of where the levels are at, the long-term damage from this pandemic will carry on for a long time,” he said.

“Our social services are under severe pressure. That’s mainly around employment. Getting staff from both the public and private sector is very challenging. We’ve seen other industries struggling. They (private sector) have the ability to put their wages up, put prices up. That is something we struggle to do.”