A PROPERTY in Abergavenny is among those that Monmouthshire Council will allocate over £700,000 towards in a bid to boost accommodation is can offer to homeless people.

That sun would cover renovation costs of a bungalow it has bought in Abergavenny to be used as a house of multiple occupation, or HMO, for homeless households as well as reimbursing itself for the cost of converting a former nursing home in Chepstow.

Cash raised in Monmouth is set to be used to lease four bedroom apartments from the Hedyn housing association at the new Nailers Lane development.

The council’s planning policy requires all residential development of between one to four homes make a contribution towards affordable housing, under what is known as a Section 106 condition, and at the end of July last year the council held just under one million pounds in such contributions.

The £905,458.37 fund was collected from payments in the Abergavenny, Chepstow and Caldicot or Monmouth housing market areas and the cash, which has to be spent within a set timeframe, must also be used for affordable housing in the housing market area where it was collected.

The council is allocating £732,376.60 of the contributions for projects in Chepstow, Abergavenny and Monmouth.

It is earmarking up to £260,720.75 towards the conversion and refurbishment of Severn View which is expected to come in at £350,000, saving the council from having to fund the whole of the conversion from its own coffers.

The bungalow at Park Crescent, Abergavenny was bought with funding from Welsh Government’s Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme but while refurbishment is expected to cost £300,000 there is a shortfall of £250,000, which will now be covered from the Section 106 funding rather the council having to cover it. The refurbishment is expected to be completed by autumn this year.

It also plans to work with a registered social landlord to use up to £193,100.51 to support acquiring one or two properties off the open market in Abergavenny.

They would available for social rent and allocated to households with a recognised housing need though it’s likely the cost of acquisition, and any refurbishment required to meet housing standards, would have to be supplemented from the Social Housing Grant received by the council and built into its capital programme plan.

At Nailers Lane, Monmouth the intention is to work with Hedyn, formed by a merger between Newport City Homes and Melin housing association, to deliver four one-bedroom apartments, which the council will lease on completion from Hedyn for use for homeless households.

The council has planned to use £28,556.34 in social housing grant this year towards the development but will now substitute that with the Section 106 contribution which will release the same amount to be used elsewhere.

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The council will have £173,081.87 remaining in the contributions to be spent from 2027 onwards if the current spending plans are approved. The report, and spending allocations, are due to be considered when the council’s cabinet meets at County Hall in Usk on Wednesday, May 20 at 4.30pm.