SENIOR Thurrock councillors have nodded through a revised scheme to take advantage of government grant funding to create temporary housing for residents and Afghan refugees in the borough by utilising modular homes.

The revised project to provide at least 14 homes has been hailed by senior councillors when they approved it at cabinet last week – but no mention was made of its calamitous and controversial history and blunders which came close to the authority losing hundred of thousands of pounds.

Last year, Thurrock Council was given notice it could take advantage of a potential £1.8million grant under the Local Authority Housing Fund by the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government.

The grant, which has to be match-funded by the council, will provide homes for those currently in temporary accommodation and four homes for Afghan refugees under the Government's resettlement scheme.

The homes will be built off site before being assembled in Thurrock and the council's housing portfolio says they could be be welcoming their first occupants this year – though no site has yet been identified.

Nor has the council found its housing partner – which will have to follow a procurement process approved by cabinet.

However, despite the previous issues (acknowledged in the report with just one short statement: "The arrangement with the previous provider has ended as of end January 2025, due to well publicised challenges with that provider"), the council is planning a minimum level of scrutiny and public diligence on how it finds that partner, mandating the Executive Director of Place in consultation with the portfolio holder for Housing, Health and Well-being to make decisions.

Yet even that is an early blunder – at its May AGM, the council split the roles of social housing from adult health and well-being! So now it has mandated a decision to a portfolio holder that does not exist.

Bizarrely the report flags up as 'red' a warning that it needs to show "appropriate project management and procurement processes undertaken to ensure completion within required timescales."

Only last week a new report issued by the council's managing commissioners highlighted to government the fact the council continued to underperform in managing risk.

The new report to cabinet said: "This funding package will reduce the impact of recent arrivals on existing housing pressures, boost the amount of council accommodation for homeless people."

Cllr Mark Hurrell

Introducing the scheme, Mark Hurrell, councillor responsible for social housing, said: "I'm really pleased with this because we're helping people who need help the most.

"This is what the council should be doing. It's a really good start of a long exercise hopefully. The more we do the more funding we will get to increase it and help more people."

Cllr Lynne Worrall, leader of the council welcomed the scheme. She said: "Modular homes have come so far to an untrained you wouldn't even be able choose which was a modular home and which was a traditional build.

"They are modern and spacious and can run on next to no energy costs whatsoever. The number we're going to be doing under this small project is not going to solve our problem, but it is a step in the right direction."

Mark Hooper, councillor responsible for health and wellbeing and a previous housing portfolio holder, said the scheme would save the council money on costly temporary accommodation. He said: "I think it's great that we introduce modular. One of the advantages is how quickly we can build them.

"We have something like 600 people or families in temporary accommodation, and we will save a lot of money on temporary accommodation if we can get these built quickly and we will save tens of thousands of pounds off our homeless budget which is good value for the people of Thurrock."

The recommendations approved, which commit the council to match-funding up to £1.8 million, also included the appointment of a technical support team to support officers, though no cost implications on this were given. Again, this comes after the council was tasked with showing more due diligence about its spending.

The plan to work with the government on the new homes project has been mired with a lack of clarity, mismanagement and secrecy.

In December 2024 the Local democracy Reporting Service detailed how councillors on the authority's Place committee vetoed a 'call-in motion' to ask questions about the costs to borough taxpayers after it would cost more than £200,000 in fees to identify and conveyancing to purchase them via the council's ten housing partner Phi Capital.

Questions were raised about why the scheme had boycotted standard procurement procedures.

However, the council appeared hugely guilty of a lack of diligence, and was only saved from committing hundreds of thousands to a 'lost cause' when Thurrock Nub News exclusively revealed Phi Capital had gone bust.

Its relationship with the council was effectively in tatters after the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) filed a petition to wind up Phi Capital Investments. However, Thurrock Council were on the brink of handing over £200,000 to Phi, unknowing of its financial plight.

Only action by Thurock Nub News, who took the decision to personally brief chief executive Dr Dave Smith, stopped the payments being made.

Just days later, at the High Court, Phi announced it was being put into administration. Councillors were assured by senior officers in December that Phi were a trusted, reliable and financially sound partner and the deal was a good one for Thurrock.

On Thursday, 30 January, then housing portfolio holder Cllr Hooper, said: "This week Phi Capital went into administration. The first we heard of this was when news emerged of an HMRC petition against the company for unpaid taxes.

"We were disappointed that as a client of Phi, we weren't alerted to this in advance, and we have spent the last few weeks reviewing our arrangements with them to limit any impact of their situation on Thurrock.

"I am pleased to confirm that our review has concluded that the impact of Phi's current situation will be negligible. We have paused all work with them, and are actively working on plans to deliver the latest tranche of homes in a different way.

"As these homes are reliant on Government-funding with strict conditions attached, we are in discussion with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to find a positive way forward."

That action has resulted in the decision to seek a modular homes partner. Officers and members recently attended a seminar featuring modular homes providers.

The borough already has one example of problems with modular homes providers, In 2023 a private development, Hope Green in Stanford-le-Hope, with a high quota of 'affordable homes' was halted midway through the project when Ilke Homes went bust. It took more than a year for construction to be restarted when another company took it over. 

As far back as 2021 Thurrock Council offered to house Afghan refugees, as shown in this Thurrock Nub News story from the time.