Response to B&NES budget consultation

BANES has recently published its budget consultation for the financial year 2026-27, and we are asking our supporters to take part.

By responding to the public consultation, you can stand alongside our teams and help ensure that people experiencing homelessness in our community are not overlooked. Julian House is part-funded by BANES, and our ability to provide safe accommodation and specialist support depends on their continued - and ideally increased - investment in homelessness services.

Across the South West, homelessness is rising, along with the pressures that cause it. Without carefully planned funding, more people will be placed at risk, and support will be harder to reach when it is most needed.

Please take a few minutes to respond to the BANES budget consultation and make your voice heard. Your response can help protect essential services and ensure that people facing homelessness continue to receive the support they need.

B&NES Council website

I appreciate that the council has got to make tough decisions about spending, with demand rising on all sides and your settlement from central government contracting.  

However, I am concerned about the lack of budget planning to maintain, and ideally grow, support for people who are homeless in our community. 

In particular, it has been well-publicised that Bath’s long-standing emergency hostel for people who are rough sleeping is at risk.  

As a supporter of Julian House, the charity which runs the hostel, I am disappointed that the council is not presenting a clear plan for how to save this vital service.  

The hostel plays a crucial role in supporting people in crisis. Rough sleeping is clearly a problem that is not going away in our area, despite successive governments’ commitments to eradicate it.  

B&NES needs a strategy to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping sustainably, not sticking-plaster short-term fixes.  

What is the council doing to find an alternative site for the hostel, and secure the future of other vital services to prevent homelessness?  Where is this represented in your budget proposals for next year and the years to come?