‘Homeless People Not A Threat To Our Community, They Are Friends And Family’

Sefton Council are set to purchase The Salfordian Hotel in Southport and said it has a statutory duty to prevent and relieve homelessness, reports the Liverpool Echo.

‘Homeless people are friends and family’, said Cllr Liz Dowd today (October 2) as she addressed some of the concerns raised about Sefton Council’s plans to purchase The Salfordian Hotel in Southport. Cllr Dowd was responding to objections against the proposal including a petition calling on the council to withdraw its proposal to purchase the hotel.

That petition was launched by local residents who said any future plans to house people in the hotel would ‘irrecoverably’ change the area. One group of local families, who wished to remain anonymous said: “This building would almost certainly be used for single adult men, including ex-offenders and those with complex needs, placed here before proper risk assessments are complete.”

The Salfordian Hotel is a Grade II Listed building situated opposite Hesketh Park at 37 Park Crescent in Southport. It was opened by Salford Council in 1963 to provide a holiday experience for residents and their carers, with 24-hour on-call support. The hotel has been owned by Salford City Council since the 1960s, but the local authority recently approached Sefton Council with an offer to sell the site. Understanding the pressures facing local authorities in providing accommodation to people in need, Salford Council were said to be keen for the property to remain in public ownership.

If Sefton Council decides to proceed with the purchase, it would need to apply for all necessary planning approvals before completing the sale. If planning permission is required, the council confirmed it will need to apply to the Local Planning Authority and that local residents will have an opportunity to comment or raise a petition on the application. All of this was detailed in a report to Sefton Council’s cabinet during a meeting at Bootle Town Hall this morning. The officer presenting the report said the proposal to purchase The Salfordian gives the council a ‘valuable opportunity’ to increase its supply of temporary accommodation for eligible Sefton households.

The officer added: “Here in Sefton, we continue to experience a rise in homelessness. The number of households and temporary accommodation has risen sharply, driven by factors such as an increase in demand for accommodation and a lack of suitable supply. The homelessness and rough sleeping strategy was agreed following the public consultation, and it sets out the council’s duties and responsibilities in meeting this challenge and to support this activity. In February 2025 the council approved an allocation of £1m in capital to support the homelessness support service in delivering solutions such as buying and refurbishing premises that are assessed as suitable for temporary accommodation.”

The council currently supports 270 households who are experiencing homelessness and are in temporary accommodation. Around 170 of the borough’s eligible homeless households are currently in temporary accommodation and are single people. The local authority said single-person-accommodation is in really short supply in Sefton, in both the social and private rental sectors. Purchasing the Salfordian Hotel, according to the local authority report, would allow the council to increase this supply of temporary accommodation ‘in-house’.

Responding to the report, Cllr Liz Dowd said: “Some people have raised concerns over what they think is going to happen to the building and who may live there temporarily. Indeed, some of the concerns have indicated that just because someone is homeless, that that presents some sort of threat to the community. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to provide clarity and assurance about the circumstances in which someone can find themselves homeless, and come to this council seeking support. People find themselves in a homeless situation due to a combination of factors in life that often interact with one another and often intensify. For example, these could include relationship breakdown with a partner, family or friends they are living with, evictions, landlords wishing to sell the houses they are renting.”

Cllr Dowd added: “We’ve seen a huge rise in Section 21 evictions, victims of domestic abuse, usually women, who literally have nowhere to go to escape their perpetrator. Inability to afford rent due to increased cost of living. We all know rents have increased because we all know supply is low. Market forces have driven them into homelessness. Lack of affordable housing supply making it difficult for people to move on easily. And let’s not forget our Armed Forces returning to civilian life, but who may have been suffering from PTSD or some other trauma related condition. These are the people we are talking about. ‘There but for the grace of God go we’. The circumstances I have alluded to are all too familiar to all of us here. This could be a family member or a friend, someone we deeply care about being able to get housing support they need locally in their community.”