Meeting documents

Councillor Winn

Cabinet Member for Communities

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Natalie Donhou-Morley (01296) 585233

(a)          Decision(s)

(1)          That the Environment and Living Scrutiny Committee be thanked for its input to the formulation of the Strategy.

(2)          That Council be recommended to:

(a)          Adopt the Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019 – 2022 as part of the Council’s Policy Framework.

(b)          Authorise the Assistant Director for Community Fulfilment, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Communities, to make any minor amendments to the Strategy as might be required to take account of the emerging initiatives.

(b)          Reason(s) for Decision(s)

To ensure that the Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019 -2022 can be published by early 2019.

(c)        Alternative Options Considered

1.            To recommend the Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019 - 2022 to Council – this option was recommended for the reasons outlined within the Cabinet report and noting that the Strategy must be published early in 2019.

2.            To not recommend the Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019 - 2022 to Council – this option was not recommended because the Strategy would not be able to be completed by the statutory deadline of early 2019.

 (d)      Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Environment and Living.  That Committee considered the strategy on 25 September, 2018, and were happy with the approach that had been taken to developing the new Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019-2022 and supported the document moving forward to Cabinet.  As the matter will now be considered by full Council, this item is not subject to call-in.

(e)        Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

None.

Local authorities had a statutory requirement under the Homelessness Act, 2002 to produce a homelessness review and strategy outlining the main causes of homelessness in their area and the strategic actions in place to tackle them.  The strategy had to be revised every five years as a minimum requirement.  The Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019 – 20122, a copy of which had previously been circulated, had been produced following a review of the housing and homelessness needs of residents within the Vale, and outlined the Council’s plans for addressing those needs for the next three years.

The Council had worked with local partners including the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust, Aylesbury Homeless Action Group, Connection Support and Heart of Bucks.  There had been a number of changes in Central Government legislation which had impacted upon the approach taken by local authorities to prevent and deal with homelessness.  Official statistics continued to show an upward trend, with the number of homelessness acceptances and rough sleepers rising year on year since 2014.

As the population in Aylesbury Vale continued to rise, so did both house prices and private rents.  However, the Vale had experienced the highest increase in housing stock throughout England over the last five years and had the highest ratio of housing delivery to existing housing stock of any authority in the Cambridge/MK/Oxford corridor.  This stock increase had included the delivery of 1,546 affordable homes between 2013 and 2018.  There had been an increase of 25% in the number of applicants found as being unintentionally homeless and in priority housing need since 2013.  The biggest rise had been in families with dependent children, with the loss of tenancy being the most common for the loss of accommodation.  However, AVDC staff had prevented homelessness in respect of 1,674 cases between 2013 and 2017.

Compared to the national picture, the homelessness figures in Aylesbury Vale were relatively low.  However,  the Aylesbury Vale rough sleeping rate in 2017 (per 1,000 households) at 0.26, was marginally higher than the national average of 0.20.

Research and customer insight to inform the Strategy had begun in February, 2018 and had included interviews with customers and a survey of providers offering services to homeless people.  A consultation event had been held on 19 April, 2018 and had been attended by 41 delegates from local partnership organisations, both statutory and voluntary.  A public consultation exercise had taken place in July/August, 2018.  The strategy had been updated to reflect the consultation responses, as well as statutory policy changes.

The strategic vision was to ensure that those who wanted to make the Vale their home should be supported and empowered to do so.  The following key strategic priorities had been identified:-

·         Priority 1 – To prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.

·         Priority 2 – To continue to facilitate and maximise the supply of affordable housing.

·         Priority 3 – To respond to the on-going challenges of welfare reform.

·         Priority 4 – To contribute to the improvement of health and wellbeing services for people at risk of homelessness.

The Strategy Action Plan, which formed an evolving part of the Strategy, set out what the Council would do to achieve the priorities identified in the Strategy.  It would act as a health check on the effective delivery of the Council’s service and would be updated quarterly on the AVDC web site.  The Action Plan would be owned by the Homelessness Prevention Forum.

The Strategy had been considered by the Environment and Living Scrutiny Committee on 25 September.  That Committee had supported the approach taken to its development/review.  The Strategy now reflected the views expressed by the Committee.

Since the Strategy had been subjected to consultation, a number of housing related projects had been implemented nationally and locally.  These had included the provision of support to recipients of Universal Credit in order to prevent, as far as was possible, financial difficulties that could put their occupancies at risk.  The Council had also successfully secured over £500,000 of Central Government funding to provide immediate support for rough sleepers in Aylesbury Vale.  It would also increase the amount of assistance that could be given to those at risk and sleeping rough through the winter months.  The Council was working with support agencies to develop innovative support solutions.  It was necessary to take account of these initiatives as they were being developed and therefore some delegation to the relevant Director was necessary in order to include them within the Strategy.

RESOLVED –

(1)  That the Environment and Living Scrutiny Committee be thanked for its input to the formulation of the Strategy.

(2)  That Council be recommended to:-

(a)  Adopt the Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019 – 2022 as part of the Council’s Policy Framework.

(b)  Authorise the Assistant Director for Community Fulfilment, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Communities, to make any minor amendments to the Strategy as might be required to take account of the emerging initiatives referred to above.