Members are asked to comment and agree recommendations.
Robert Hobbs, Corporate Manager – Strategic Planning
Gillian Cook – Strategic Housing Officer
Minutes:
8.1 Councillor Osborne, Cabinet Member – Housing, introduced the report by summarising the recent development in the Housing Strategy and that emphasis was on strong, safe and resilient communities. Supply of housing in the future depended on corporation between key stake holders and Member involvement. She referred to the recent Member workshop and reminded Members that further workshops were to take place, and that the final one was to be held in November. The Housing Strategy Consultation period also ended the first week in November 2018.
8.2 Robert Hobbs, Corporate Manager – Strategic Planning, explained it was the legal requirement of the Councils to provide a Housing Strategy and that the focus had been on the four main issues identified in the scoping document as priority 1 to 4 (page 112 to 114). An action plan was in place for the next five years and was to be presented to the Cabinets in December 2018.
8.3 Councillor Welham asked questions including:
· If a key development was to included energy and water efficiency;
· That the report appeared to have too much consideration for homeownership;
· If the Housing Strategy was robust enough to withstand Central Government’s policy changes or flexible enough to adapt to Government policy changes;
· Were there potential staffing implications in relation to monitoring the number of houses being completed and to the monitoring of the progress of stalled sites.
8.4 The Cabinet Member - Housing responded that there was no specific emphasis on homeownership, houses with affordable rent or shared Ownership in the strategy and if this was felt to be the case the report was to be amended. The main focus was to provide the right housing in the right place and with the right tenure. She also said it was difficult to pre-empt future Government legislation, but that the Strategy was flexible enough for this.
8.5 Fuel and energy efficiency were included as key objectives in the document, and that solar panels were installed on Council properties.
8.6 Officers continued that staffing was being addressed and that the team was being restructured to progress with the demand of the Housing Strategy.
8.7 An allowance of £60,000 had been allocated for Mid Suffolk to work on the blockage of stalled sites and attempts had been made to fill a post to manage this project. However, this had been unsuccessful and the engagement of a consultant for Navigus Planning had been employed to work on this project and on an on-going database with up-to date information for the sites. It was a challenge to the right people and was not just a question of resources.
8.8 Councillor Osborne added that the Action Plan for the Housing Strategy would have the ability to adapt to Central Government Legislation.
8.9 Members then asked about paragraph 4.5 (page 103) and that the expected increase in the population would be 21,000.
8.10 The Corporate Manger – Strategic Planning, responded he would provide the information outside the Committee.
8.11 Councillor Hurren generally felt the report was quite robust but regretted the absence of involvement of with the Housing Association, and he felt that the focus was not local enough.
8.12 The Housing Strategy Officer – Strategic Planning, explained her role in the department and how she was supporting the local community. She continued that the document in front of Members provided the general top lines of what the finished Housing Strategy would look like. She was currently undertaking detailed work for the finished document and this would have to be presented to the Cabinets in September. She said that the Action Plan would contain more detail of local needs. There was also to be an annual review and monitoring of the Action Plan.
8.13 Councillor Hinton raised questions in relation to voids and said that these had to be keep to a minimum.
8.14 The Cabinet Member – Housing, responded that the voids team had worked hard to reduce the time it took to re-let a Council Property and that in June the number of days were reduced to 17 days. Currently there was 324 empty properties across the two Districts and the Councils were working with private landlords to get more property ready to be re-let.
8.15 The Chair reminded Members that in the past year the Committee had been involved in the work to reduce voids.
8.16 Councillor Welham enquired if there would be a reference to Council Housing developments across the Districts in the Action Plan and the officers responded that there would be a section for this.
8.17 Then Chair then drew Members’ attention to the Indicative Time Table on page 122.
The recommendation 3.1 was proposed and seconded.
By a unanimous vote
It was RESOLVED: -
That the comprehensive BMSDC Housing Strategy context and development process detailed in the report be endorsed, which includes a revised Homelessness Reduction Strategy
Supporting documents: