New Forest Borough Council Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel Meeting

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 September 2020 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

No declarations of interest were made by members in connection with an agenda item.

No issues were raised in the public participation period.

The Panel considered the draft Local Connection Restriction Policy.  This policy proposed to place restrictions, contained in S157 of the Housing Act 1985 to restrict the onward disposal of Council properties sold under the right to buy (RTB) scheme in designated rural areas, the National Park and areas of outstanding natural beauty within the New Forest District Council administrative area.

All tenants living in council dwellings have the potential to acquire the property under the right to buy provisions.  However, should a tenant purchase a council property within the identified protected areas, a covenant would be placed on the future disposal of the dwelling, so that the property could only be sold to a person who had lived or worked in the designated ‘protected areas’ for three years or more.  This requirement would also be applicable to any proposed future private letting of these properties.  It was recognised there could be exceptional circumstances whereby, the Council would consider requests to waive the proposed restrictions which were set out within the policy.  This included, for example, where a property had been marketed for sale or rent for 12 months or more.

Members spoke in support of the proposed draft policy and the benefits it would bring enabling those who had a local connection being able to purchase or rent the properties within the protected areas. 

Members questioned whether there were safeguards in place to reduce the risk of abuse of the policy whereby people do not have a local connection.  It was noted that the District Council would need to verify the local connection prior to issuing consent to the disposal of a property in the protected area and there were safeguards within Section 157 of the Housing Act.

In response to a question about transfer of the property though circumstances such as inheritance or matrimonial proceedings, it was noted that there were exemptions set out in Section 160 of the Housing Act to cover certain disposals such as the aforementioned examples. 

RESOLVED:

That the proposed draft Local Connection Restriction Policy be fully supported by the Panel for approval by Cabinet.

A presentation was provided to the Panel with an update on homelessness, which included the highlights of the work carried out against the Strategic Actions identified within the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-2023 adopted in April 2019.  The presentation is attached to the minutes as an Appendix.

The highlights included:

·            The adoption of a new Social Housing Allocation Policy, which included the launch of a new computer system in January 2020;

·            A Personal Housing Plan (PHP) for all applicants on the housing register.  A key performance indicator had been set for 2020/21.  93% of 1,800 applicants receive a PHP annually;

·            Reviewing staffing resources against the requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and as a result the number of homelessness officers had increased.  The team had also been split into specific roles for triage, prevention and move on accommodation in order to work more efficiently;

·            A new support team of 8 officers to review and support the arrangements for those households with complex needs; and

·            A process to respond to reports of rough sleeping quickly, and to support individuals provided with accommodation to prevent them returning to rough sleeping.

There were currently 1,142 live applications for Council properties.  201 applicants had been rehoused since January 2020, and of these 55 full duty homeless cases had moved on from temporary accommodation, which was a key aim of the new policy.

The Council had been successful in being awarded funding from government, with short term funding of £256,592 to assist with accommodation costs arising through the COVID-19 pandemic, additional staffing support and to access move on accommodation.  Capital Grant funding had been secured to convert the Tourlands Hostel in Lymington to ‘move on’ accommodation.  In addition, funding for three years additional support from 2021 had been awarded and £50,000 for rough sleeper accommodation this winter.

Members noted that there had been 1,800 approaches for housing assistance in the last 12 calendar months. It was explained that around a third of the approaches for housing assistance were from those threatened with homelessness and that officers working with residents and landlords were successful in preventing homelessness in 70% of cases.

There had been a rise in rough sleeping and the Council currently had 16 rough sleepers with three rough sleepers who had refused accommodation.  Assessments had been completed for the remaining 13 in order to plan to move them out of their current temporary accommodation.  40 households were currently in external accommodation, which included 5 families, 19 single people accommodated during the first lockdown, and 16 single people after this lockdown.

The Panel received a presentation providing an update on the Council’s HRA property development and acquisition of properties.  A copy of the presentation is attached to the minutes as an Appendix.

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The Portfolio Holder for Housing Services reported that given the previous agenda items she had nothing specifically to report.

RESOLVED:

That the Work Programme be noted.