To consider the progress made in respect of the recommendations arising from the Housing, Renewal and Homelessness Strategy Review Action Plan. 

46.1           The report of the Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 75-91, provided Members with a summary of the key activities that had been achieved in relation to the Housing, Renewal and Homelessness Strategy Review Action Plan.  Members were asked to consider the achievements made to date.

46.2           Members were reminded that the Housing Strategy 2017-21 had been developed by an Overview and Scrutiny Working Group and was adopted by the Council in January 2017.  The strategy contained four key priorities to meet the housing needs of the borough: increasing the supply of housing; preventing homelessness; meeting the housing need of specific groups; and improving the health and wellbeing of local people.  The report provided an update on the progress made against the action plan over the last nine months. 

46.3           The Housing Services Manager advised that she had tried to highlight the areas where there had been significant changes.  In terms of the first priority in relation to increasing the supply of housing, she indicated that the team had been looking at alternative construction methods which tended to be cheaper than traditional houses.  Officers had been working with Severn Vale Housing Society but, unfortunately, many of its sites were unsuitable for the new methods and it would be necessary to look at the Council’s own sites.  The work on empty homes would continue when the Environmental Health Manager was in post.  The implications of Universal Credit on private landlords were currently unknown and promotional activities had stopped until the assistance that could be offered, and the mechanisms for payment in order to incentivise landlords to accept low income residents, became clear.  With regard to the priority around homelessness and homelessness prevention, she advised that Tewkesbury Borough Council had been peer reviewed by the Department for Communities and Local Government in July 2017 and had exceeded the 60% required to make an application for the bronze award under its Gold Programme.  The main thrust of the work in this area had been around implementing the new homelessness reduction legislation and combating the effect of welfare reform.  She had been to look at the new database which could be used to formulate a housing plan to help reduce the amount of time spent with residents, and the Housing Team had been working with colleagues in Revenues and Benefits and the Financial Inclusion Partnership on how to address the changes brought about by welfare reform.  A large proportion of the work around meeting the housing needs of those who needed it most had been done by the new Strategic Housing and Enabling Officer who had concentrated on establishing a local connection policy to ensure that development via rural exception was prioritised for the needs of a local community; this policy was due to be finalised by December 2017.  With regard to the priority to improve the health and wellbeing of local people, Members were advised that housing condition service requests had all received responses within the required three days and a prohibition order had been served in relation to a private sector housing complaint which had resulted in the identification of six category one hazards; this order had been breached and a prosecution was pending.  The Head of Community Services reminded Members of the seminar on homelessness prevention which was taking place on Monday 30 October and would update them on the homelessness review and implications of Universal Credit and welfare reform.

46.4           A Member expressed the view that the Council’s Housing Team was taking a very pragmatic and sensitive approach to Universal Credit; however, he was not confident that housing associations were properly informing people of the assistance that was available to them and he questioned whether anything could be done to address this.  The Housing Services Manager indicated that this came under the remit of the Financial Inclusion Partnership which included the majority of the borough’s housing providers.  She had written to the housing providers in respect of the pre-eviction protocol and would be sending out a booklet about the advice on offer.  She provided assurance that meetings over the last year had been very much focused on welfare reform and how this could be mitigated as landlords and tenants.

46.5           A Member was pleased to note the positive actions which had been taken to date but raised concern that some of the comments in the action plan did not reflect the status given to the actions.  For example, Page No. 81, Reference P1.1, Investigate how alternative construction methods can deliver new affordable housing on council-owned land, had a target date of July 2017 and had been reported as being on target, yet the comments stated that this was a longer term objective which implied it had not been completed; similarly, Page No. 81, Reference P1.2 was marked as being ongoing but the target date was still down as July 2017.  In view of the concerns raised in respect of both this action plan, and the one in relation to enviro-crimes which had been discussed under the last Agenda item, the Member suggested that it might be beneficial to introduce a standard template for action plans which could be used by every department for monitoring review actions and reporting back to the Committee.  The Head of Corporate Services pointed out that there had been three separate reports with action plans on today’s Agenda, each with different formats, and he felt that a standard action plan template, together with guidance to Officers as to how it should be completed, would help to ensure consistency in terms of the level of detail contained within the reports.  It was therefore

RESOLVED          1.   That the progress against the outcomes identified within the Housing, Renewal and Homelessness Strategy Review Action Plan be NOTED.

2.   That a standard template be introduced for action plans arising from Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviews.