A scheme to support local homeless people has been rushed through to make sure the district council does not miss out on government funding.

Warwick District Council was given £108,000 by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in 2020 to support up to 16 "of the most challenging and disadvantaged of this group".

Usually the council would have to invite companies to apply to run the scheme.

But having not used the money quickly enough, the council has now voted to skip this step and give the money to an organisation of its own choice before it has to be returned.

WDC will now hand an estimated £91,000 contract to Brighter Futures to run the programme for the next 12 months.

Speaking at last week's cabinet meeting Cllr Jan Matecki said: "I just want to assure councillors that we have done some due diligence with Brighter Futures with whom we propose to engage in this contract.

"They have offered good value for money.

"They have been reviewed by Staffordshire University for the scheme in Stoke, Coventry use them, so we have gone around and all we have heard is positive results."

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A cabinet report said the money will be used to create a 'Housing First Model' which puts "chronically homeless people in to ordinary accommodation, rather than offering housing as a reward for progress in treatment".

The council also reported that in December that there were six rough sleepers in the district.

Cllr Matecki added: "This is about helping some of the most vulnerable in our society.

"To go through the procurement process would just delay that process probably until the end of this year, so I think it is quite important that we engage with Brighter Futures as soon as possible and we can get this service going to actually help these people.

"The Housing First model is a good model and it was shown during Covid that those who have got their own front door tend to stay there."