Agenda item

Report No: OAS/FH/17/018

The Lead Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Sara Mildmay-White has been invited to the meeting to provide an annual account on her portfolio and to answer questions from the Committee.

The Committee was reminded that on 21 July 2016, it had received a presentation from the Lead Cabinet Member for Housing, setting out her responsibilities covered under the portfolio.

At this meeting, the Lead Cabinet Member for Housing had been invited back to provide a follow-up presentation on her portfolio.  Report No: OAS/FH/17/018 set out the focus of the follow-up presentation, which was to:

·         Outline the main challenges faced during the first year;

·         Outline some key successes and any failures during the first year;

·         Set out the vision for the Portfolio through to 2019, and whether on target to meet that vision.

Before initially opening her presentation, Councillor Mildmay-White informed the Committee that Sara Lomax was nominated in her role of Service Manager for Housing Options and Homelessness in which she works closely with domestic abuse support services, supporting victims through homelessness prevention and encouraging agencies to work within the area. She had been at the forefront in bringing additional support to West Suffolk through the satellite accommodation project (which provides accommodation for victims of domestic abuse that were not in a refuge) and continued to bring best practice and new ideas to the area, increasing the support the councils could offer to victims of domestic abuse.  Sara was presented with a certificate in recognition of her work from Cllr Tony Goldson, Chair of the Suffolk Health and Wellbeing Board.

Councillor Sara Mildmay-White then opened her presentation by thanking the Committee for the invitation and for its support over the past year, and provided a number of examples, outlining challenges faced; successes and lessons learnt; and the vision through to 2019, such as:

• Behaving more commercially due to changes being made by Central Government (challenge)
• Bringing more empty homes back into use (challenge)
• Introduction of the Universal Credit full service goes live in Forest Heath and surrounding postcodes on September 2018 (future challenge)
• Barley Homes Group Limited which had now been incorporated (key success)
• Following a successful bid to the DCLG, the council along with Babergh/Mid Suffolk had employed a Rough Sleeper Outreach Prevention Worker (key success)
• Unable to meet the 30% affordable housing on brownfield sites (less successful)
• Delayed implementation of the data transfer to Home-link due to IT issues (less successful)
• Embedding the housing portfolio into the council in the way it delivers its commercial work (vision)
• Currently developing a Space Standards to eventually become a Supplementary Planning Document (vision)
• Barley Homes Group Limited to become an exemplar for housing standards (vision)

Members discussed the update in detail and asked questions of the Cabinet Member and officers, to which comprehensive responses were provided.

In response to particular questions raised, members were advised that:

·         Delays had occurred around the negotiation of land sales to the Barley Homes Group Limited, but this had not impacted on the dividend / long-term profit margins for the councils.  Terms had now been agreed for three of the four sites.

·         Suffolk County Council in co-operation of the district and borough’s was looking again at transit sites for Gypsies and Travellers.

·         The Rough Sleeper Outreach worker was engaging homeless people with support services to try and encourage a change in their lifestyles.  However, the individuals need to be willing to change and/or be open to support.

·         The Strategic Housing Team was working on a Technical Advice Note for Space Standards.  The Note would provide developers with the councils recommended minimum standards for developing all dwellings across West Suffolk.

·         A list of registered Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) was available on the councils website at http://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/housing/hmos.cfm

·         “Street Link” was a service whereby members of the public could report cases of rough sleepers (www.streetlink.org.uk)

·         Universal Credit: two member development sessions would be held on 7 September 2017 at St Edmundsbury and 18 September 2017 at Forest Heath on Universal Credit and homeless.  The sessions would be facilitated by the Department of Work and Pensions.

·         The Barley Homes Group Limited Annual Report would be presented to the committee either in November 2017 or January 2018.

Discussions were also held on street begging and how members could help provide intelligence in identifying HMOs in their wards. 

The Chairman thanked the Lead Cabinet Member for Housing for the update on her portfolio. 

There being no decision required, the Committee noted the presentation.