The Cabinet Member (Environment and Strategic Housing) will comment on the key achievements or topics for improvement in the past year in his programme area as it relates to the Committee; what matters will need to be addressed in the coming year and issues with which he may wish to involve Scrutiny in the future.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Strategic Housing presented his report.

The Cabinet Member took the Committee through his report, and highlighted the following areas in particular:

·         That the service had two key targets against which performance was monitored. The first of these was the provision of affordable homes, and against a target of 220 affordable homes (built or acquired) only 141 had been achieved during the year.  This was largely as a result of the delay in receiving planning application approval; a result of the poor quality of some of the applications, which meant that Planning Committees had turned them down.  The Chairs of the Housing Associations had been urged by the Head of Planning and Transportation to ensure that all applications were correctly finished before submission.  The majority of affordable homes provided were through grant funding.

·         The second key target was against the Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) 64: Number of empty properties brought back into use as a result of direct action of the local authority.  Against the target of 110, 112 properties were brought back into use during 2007/08.  This was an increased target from 45 in 2006/7 as a result of the reintroduction of the rent/deposit scheme that could be used to assist homeless families into the private rented sector where properties had been empty (there were 67 properties during 2007/8).

·         The Cabinet Member went on to say that there were a number of Key Achievements for the Service in 2007/08.  The first of these was positive working with the Learning Disability Service in order to identify eighteen new homes in the community to support independent living with floating support.  Work had also been undertaken with the Supporting People Team to ensure that funding was available for floating support services to maintain independent living for vulnerable client groups.  As a result, there were no care leavers in bed & breakfast accommodation after leaving care. A member pointed out that it should be borne in mind that single parent families needed multiple room accommodation, as did live-in carers. 

·         The Cabinet Member reported that a more focussed approach for Registered Social Landlords (RSL) partners to increase the delivery of affordable housing across the County had involved the Parishes in identifying four sites for development.    A member remarked that planning applications were increasingly seen with numbers of units under the level that required social housing provision in their first phase.  These developments then rolled out a subsequent phase that took them over the level, but avoided the requirement for social housing by phasing the development. It was noted that RSLs were competing in the North of the County for affordable houses in developments, so it was important that a dialogue should be entered into with them. The Housing Corporation were seeking efficiency savings across build programmes and this has had a direct impact on the rural schemes.  Grant rates were required in the region of £50k per rented unit where previously RSLs were seeking levels of £70k.

·         The Director of Regeneration said that there was a significant number of homeless in Herefordshire, and the Service was now seeing professional people coming forward with problems.  There were a number of people in temporary accommodation, but the Council had resisted putting up vulnerable cases in such lodgings.

·         The Cabinet Member reported that the West Housing Market Area Assessment, as well as the assessment of the needs of Gypsies and Travellers, had been completed.

·         The Cabinet Member went on to say that there were a number of key challenges for 2008/11 that faced the Council.  The National Indicator for new homes built or acquired had stretched targets to reach a total of 350 homes in 2010/11, up from 200 in 2008/09. This would have to be delivered at a time when current financial market had seen many national house builders withdraw from delivering key strategic sites which would affect the delivery at local level.  Whilst the target for 2008/9 was considered achievable, future years would be challenging.

·         In reply to a question from a Member, the Director of Regeneration said that there were no plans at this stage for a homelessness hostel in the City.  Government guidance was that temporary accommodation should be disposed of in favour of sufficient permanent provision.

·         The key activities for 2008/09 included the implementation of the Key Worker Policy and what this would mean for the County, the implementation of intermediate rental policy as an incentive to bring empty properties back into use, and a Rough Sleepers Count  which would incorporate a hidden homeless count. As the Gypsy & Travellers Accommodation Needs Assessment had been finalised, the Council would now need to meet the needs that had been identified.

·         The Edgar Street Grid Regeneration would maximise the opportunities for affordable housing across the site, and over a 1000 houses were planned for the area. It would also ensure that the urban village delivered a range of housing choices to meet the needs of Herefordshire.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for his report.

RESOLVED: That a report on current homelessness figures should be brought to the next meeting of the Committee, with an indication of how the Council’s Strategy on Homelessness was dealing with the situation.