The Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses were noted.

DECISION

1.    To note the progress and actions taken by officers over the course of the last year in terms of the provision of housing and homes.

Action by:

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, PLACE (A. SUTCLIFFE)

(Director of Housing and Regeneration (K. Swift)

(Strategy and Policy Officer (U. Bedford)

Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Housing, introduced the report setting out the Council’s delivery against key housing targets and challenges faced by the borough. Particular issues including; the impact of Covid, use of foodbanks, Brexit (in particular around construction costs), fire safety and delivering net zero carbon amongst other issues.

He noted many areas of good performance including around supporting the homeless, dealing with overcrowded households, improvements to telephone and appointment systems and general customer access. A comprehensive programme for delivering new homes was now in operation with nearly 1000 new homes already delivered and another 1000 planned. The report also set out how the Council was supporting residents living in private rented accommodation. Over £360,000 had been levied in court charges against rogue landlords.

Cabinet also heard from a local resident who, in particular, expressed concern about the proposed changes to tenancy agreements and in particular the very low consultation responses did not give sufficient justification for such changes.

More generally he noted that housing policy was an extremely important area for Councils and the changes being made did not reflect the needs of the borough. He also questioned whether the number of new homes noted was a proper reflection of the situation. Finally, he requested that local people be prioritised for decanting to new properties.

The Mayor thanked him for his presentation and the Cabinet Member for Housing responded to the concerns raised, in particular in relation to the efforts made to ensure a good response to the consultation exercise and noting that the response levels were in line with other authorities.

The Mayor noted that there was a slide presentation attached to the report with more details on the issues covered. He noted the Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses and moved the recommendation as set out in the report. This was unanimously approved by the Members present and it was:

RESOLVED

1.    To note the progress and actions taken by officers over the course of the last year in terms of the provision of housing and homes.