To receive a report on the activities of Herefordshire Housing over the last year.

The Committee received a report from the Chief Executive, Herefordshire Housing Ltd, on the activities of the organisation over the last year.

In his presentation, the Chief Executive raised the following issues:

• That the activities of the organisation were based on the property assets that had been transferred to it by the Council, and that planning for the future of had been strengthened. The intention was to build a vision of an organisation that offered a wide range of services; not just a housing provider, but as a provider for the needs of the vulnerable.

• It was important that the stock should be managed well into the future, and to that end£24m had been found from budgets to be used in maintenance over the next 5 years.

• That additional funds had been put into maintenance of trees, the cleaning of communal areas and tackling anti social behaviour.

• Although the Warden Service had been withdrawn, improved targets had been set for support services that would be targeted on vulnerable people.

• Careline was a service that Herefordshire should be proud of, and it had dealt with calls from 24,000 people in the current year at a low cost.  Additional telecare services would be offered on a round the clock basis.

• The effects of the recession could well last up to five years and it was likely that both homelessness and poverty would be on the increase.

• Prevention of homelessness should be a priority, and Herefordshire Housing contributed £82k a year to the Home Point Partnership’s total budget of £274k.  A review had been undertaken into the charity’s activities to enable better and more targeted delivery of affordable housing.

• Care should be taken not to concentrate solely on development of new stock, but also on support services for residents, and a number of ways of doing this were being pursued.  There was a policy of supporting people to remain in their homes during the recession in order to tackle the issue of homelessness, and more properties would be let in order to provide additional housing stock.

• Sixteen thousand repairs were undertaken each year to improve and maintain existing stock, and orders were enforced in order to help people feel more secure in their environment.

In the discussion following the presentation, the following points were raised;

• That the Warden Scheme did not provide the care that was required as the Warden only worked until 3.30pm, and was unavailable at weekends.   Better targeted and trained support was now available through Careline.

• In reply to a concern from a Member that there should be a frontline desk to allow people to register as homeless, or to bring debt problems, the Head of Strategic Housing said that early advice could be provided.  The Services was working with Registered Social Landlords to ensure that their staff notified the Council as soon as possible.

• In response to a further query concerning the installation of adaptations in homes, the Head of Strategic Housing said that there had been a budget of £525k for the last two years for the installation of adaptations, but that there had been a huge increase in demand partly because occupation therapy referrals were now taking place much faster.  Whilst these installations were funded from the Disabled Facilities Budget, there was now a shortfall of available funds to meet the needs of the users, and a paper outlining possible options would be presented to Cabinet.

RESOLVED: That the presentation be noted.