Folkestone & Hythe Council Delivers New Flats for Residents Facing Homelessness

What the Council Has Built

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has delivered a new block of self-contained flats for residents in acute housing need — people who, without this, would likely end up in B&Bs or nightly-paid lets, often miles from home and everything familiar.

The flats are directly owned and managed by the council. Not handed off to a housing association. That distinction matters more than it might sound: it gives F&HDC direct control over who gets housed, on what terms, and what support sits alongside the tenancy. The homes are expected to be let at social or affordable rents, in line with how similar council-owned schemes operate across Kent.

Why B&Bs Are the Problem Worth Solving

Under national homelessness legislation, district councils must provide temporary accommodation to households accepted as being in priority need. For years, that’s meant B&Bs — eye-wateringly expensive for councils, deeply disruptive for families, and often nowhere near schools, GPs or support networks.

It’s not a sustainable answer.

And F&HDC isn’t alone in recognising that. Dover District Council has been building its own interim housing for several years. A scheme completed in January 2023 delivered 16 studio flats let at social rent, specifically to cut B&B placements. Another Dover development, completed in 2025, added six further homes — a mix of one- and two-bedroom flats at affordable rent. Dover has set itself a target of an average of 200 additional council homes per year through to 2027. F&HDC’s new flats sit squarely within this county-wide shift towards councils taking direct ownership of the problem rather than farming it out and hoping for the best.

Who These Flats Are For

The households likely to be housed here include those accepted as homeless or at risk of homelessness under the Housing Act 1996, as well as people on the council’s waiting list due to overcrowding, domestic abuse, medical needs or financial hardship. Self-contained flats — your own front door, your own kitchen, your own bathroom — offer something a shared B&B corridor simply cannot. Stability.

And that stability ripples outward. Children stay in the same school. Adults can hold down work. Health appointments don’t get missed. These aren’t small things.

Part of a Bigger Picture

The new flats also sit alongside F&HDC’s longer-term ambitions. Otterpool Park — the council-backed garden town near Folkestone, delivered through the council-owned company Otterpool Park LLP — has planning approval for around 8,500 homes, along with health centres and community facilities. That’s a project measured in decades. The new council flats are what happens in the meantime, for people who need a roof now, not in 2040.

Housing campaigners are likely to welcome the development while arguing — with some justification — that Kent needs far greater numbers of genuinely affordable homes, and that interim schemes must be backed by long-term social housing supply. Fair point, frankly.

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Key Takeaways

• Folkestone & Hythe District Council has delivered new self-contained, council-owned flats for households facing homelessness or acute housing need
• The scheme is designed to reduce costly and disruptive placements in B&B and nightly-paid accommodation
• The development forms part of a wider F&HDC housing strategy that includes the Otterpool Park garden town, approved for around 8,500 homes

What This Means for Kent Residents

For anyone currently on Folkestone & Hythe’s housing register or at risk of homelessness, this development means a more stable and local option than being shunted into a B&B — potentially in another town entirely. For the council, direct ownership means lower ongoing costs than nightly-paid lets and better oversight of tenancy support. And for the wider district, it’s a signal that F&HDC intends to act as an active housing provider, not simply a body that processes applications and waits for the private sector to fill the gaps. Residents with housing concerns can contact Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s housing team directly, or reach Shelter’s free helpline on 0808 800 4444.