Issue - meetings

At its meeting on 6 October 2021 the Executive Committee considered the Homeseeker Plus Sub-Regional Choice Based Lettings Allocation Policy and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL  that the refreshed Homeseeker Plus Policy be ADOPTED in early 2022 at the management board’s discretion (of which Tewkesbury Borough Council is a member).  

34.11        At its meeting on 6 October 2021, the Executive Committee had considered the Homeseeker Plus Sub-Regional Choice Based Lettings Allocation Policy and recommended to Council that the refreshed Homeseeker Plus Policy be adopted in early 2022 at the management board’s discretion (of which Tewkesbury Borough Council was a member).    

34.12        The report which was considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 70-128.

34.13        The Chair of the Executive Committee proposed the recommendation and the Vice-Chair seconded it.

34.14        Accordingly, it was

                 RESOLVED           That the refreshed Homeseeker Plus Policy be adopted in early                               2022 at the management board’s discretion (of which                                             Tewkesbury Borough Council was a member).    

To recommend adoption of the refreshed Homeseeker Plus Policy to Council. 

That it be RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the refreshed Homeseeker Plus Policy be ADOPTED in early 2022 at the management board’s discretion (of which Tewkesbury Borough Council is a member).  

48.1          The report of the Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 194-252, set out a Homeseeker Plus Sub-Regional Choice Based Lettings Allocation Policy. The policy explained who was eligible and qualified to apply on Homeseeker Plus and set out how applications would be assessed based on housing need. The Committee was asked to recommend the policy to Council for adoption early in 2022 at the management board’s discretion.

48.2          The Head of Community Services explained that the policy that was previously approved by Executive Committee was opened to public consultation in early 2021; the Forest of Dean District Council had coordinated the consultation on behalf of the partnership. The consultation had run from 1 February 2021 for a period of eight weeks ending on 29 March 2021. In total, 232 responses had been received. The overall responses to the suggested changes had been positive with respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing. The proposed major changes to the policy were approved by the Executive Committee in October 2019 prior to consultation - two further changes were set out at Paragraph 3.2 of the report and there were a number of other minor changes to address spelling, punctuation and grammar or in relation to presentation - the final policy wording with those changes could be found in Appendix 1 to the report with some formatting updates still being required.  

48.3          Referring to the amendments proposed in Paragraph 3.2 of the report, a Member expressed the view that the addition of the word ‘urgent’ in point 4.35 could narrow the definition of people that could apply for accommodation. Following a discussion and debate, it was understood that, in effect, the word ‘urgent’ had always been in the policy, as shown in the table of Page No. 219 of the report; however, it also needed to be added to the text of the policy to ensure consistency.

48.4          In response to a query, it was advised that the policy was common to all seven Gloucestershire authorities so if any changes were made they would have to be agreed by all authorities. Accordingly, it was