Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting of the Housing Scrutiny Commissions held on 7 September 2020 and 4 November 2020 have been circulated, and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

AGREED:

1)    That the minutes of the meeting of the Housing Scrutiny Commission on 3 September 2020 be confirmed as a correct record.

2)    That the minutes of the meeting of the Housing Scrutiny Commission on 4 November 2020 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any petitions received in accordance with Council procedures.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no petitions had been received.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any questions, representations or statements of case received in accordance with Council procedures.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no questions, representations or statements of case had been received.

The Director of Housing gives an update on the impact of Covid-19 on housing.

The Director of Housing gave an update on the impact of Covid-19 on Housing Issues.

·         The Housing team had been much better prepared to continue with services during the second lockdown due to lessons learned in the first lockdown.  Most services had been continuing.

·         Those working in the field had more robust risk assessments so they knew how to operate safely.

·         The Housing register had remained open, as had the allocation of council homes.

·         Work was continuing on homes for new tenants.

·         Urgent repairs and work involving gas was being prioritised.  Non-priority repairs had been paused.

·         Tenancy Management had focussed on issues such as domestic violence, Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and harassment and was contacting and supporting vulnerable people.

·         STAR and District Management Teams were looking to get winter grants to vulnerable people.

·         At the beginning of the pandemic there had been a large rise in rent arrears.  The team had managed to bring this down to £2.4milliion from £2.6million but a small number of tenancies continued not to pay despite being offered help.  Rent arrears evictions were not taking place during the National Lockdown or in areas with Tier 2 or 3 restrictions.

·         The Council had been working with partners such as One Roof and Action Homeless on the ‘Everyone In’ service to provide accommodation for homeless people.  The Dawn Centre was in use, 40 people were in Bed and Breakfast Accommodation and the team were looking to get these people into permanent accommodation.  The Council had bid for £320,000 under the ‘Next Steps’ programme.

·         New-build council housing was beginning to see completion and the Council were also acquiring properties form the open market.

Councillor Aqbany requested clarification on the grants offered to vulnerable people.

Director of Housing, Chris Burgin, clarified that it was set up primarily for families with vulnerabilities.

The Head of Housing for Tenancy Management and STAR service, Gurjit Kaur Minhas, further clarified that it was specifically to pay towards food and utilities for households who were vulnerable, low-earning and affected by the pandemic.  80% of the grant focussed on families with young children.

Councillor Cutkelvin emphasised the importance of keeping services agile in lockdown and noted that the Council had responded quickly to changing circumstances.

AGREED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That the report be sent to members of the Commission.

Councillor Nangreave joined the meeting during deliberation of this item.

The Head of Service for Housing gives a presentation on spending through the Housing Revenue Account and General Fund.

The Director of Housing submitted a presentation for noting on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and General Fund Capital Programme 2020/21.

• It was reported that in Quarter 1, spending had been low as only essential works had been carried out.  A slight recovery had been seen in Quarter 2, but it was unlikely that there would be a full spend in all work areas.  The position was expected to be strengthened in Quarters 3 and 4.
• Work done inside properties would experience under-spend, but external works would be spent as-per budget.
• The largest budget was for Council acquisitions and new builds.
• Delays had been experienced as contractors’ capacity was reduced due to demands from other organisations, staff being furloughed and staff being cautious about returning to work.
• Some tenants had been cautious about having workers in their homes and had asked for work to be delayed.
• Acquisitions were going well despite slowing in March 2020.  There had been some pauses but the spend was forecasted to be as-per budget.
• Regarding the General Fund, below-budget spends were forecasted, but improvement was expected in quarters 3 and 4.
• Regarding communal and public realm works, plans had been put in place for the restyling of Ottawa Road, a landscape architect had been brought in to re-design courtyards and a consultation on the demolition of on-site garages was due to start.
• Disabled facilities grants were moving on at pace.  All cases were being reviewed and pragmatic ways to expediate works were being considered.
• Delays were being experienced in fleet replacement; however, delivery was on course.  New vans and vehicles had been delivered.
• Regarding right-to-by receipts, it was aimed to have fully utilised them.

Councillor Pickering asked as to whether the Council would be able to catch-up on underspends, and if this was not possible, where the money would go.

Head of Service for Housing, Simon Nicholls, responded that the Capital Programme would be re-profiled and as such would be caught up on over the next 12 months to deliver what hadn’t been delivered in this financial year.

Councillor Wilmott asked if there was any scope for reprofiling the spend, so if money was unable to be spent in some areas it could be spent in others, giving the example of repurposing empty homes.

Simon Nicholls responded that there had been some reprofiling on external works such as roofing and as such more of that budget would be spent this year as capacity had been gained by not doing internal works.

Councillor Nangreave raised climate change and energy saving issues and raised queries regarding the life-span of boilers, alternatives to boilers such as hydrogen, retrofitting and whether windows were still being replaced with double-glazing or whether triple-glazing was now being used.

Simon Nicholls responded that boilers were based on a lifecycle of 15 years, but if they were in good condition they were not necessarily replaced after that time, replacement was based on referrals from gas engineers.

Retrofitting of thermal insulation was being explored on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 102.

The Director of Housing submits a report providing the Housing Scrutiny Commission with an update on the work and priorities of the Tenancy Management and STAR Service.

The Director of Housing submitted a report providing the Housing Scrutiny Commission an update on the work and priorities of the Tenancy Management and STAR Service, highlighting the next steps and improvements being planned within service areas and providing an update on how the service responded and adapted service provision to support the most vulnerable tenants during the Coronavirus pandemic.

• The service provided a social landlord function to council homes as well as managing sheltered housing, leaseholder services and gypsy and traveller sites.
• During 2019-20, 18,972 service requests were dealt with.
• The percentage of new tenancies sustained over a year was 91.1%.
• Fire inspections carried out in communal areas were 99.1%.
• In 2019-20, 1487 Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) cases were dealt with.
• The service had performed well considering the challenges of lockdown.
• Service priorities were: Improving estates and communal areas, dealing with fire safety, tackling ASB and supporting tenants.
• According to a survey of tenants in early 2020, tenants had similar priorities to those that the service had in place.
• Regarding the Environmental Budget, it was predicted that there would likely be an underspend of the £750,000 budget, but 38 schemes were in place, including external painting, parking and bedroom and bathroom conversion.
• The service was looking to spent £5million over 3 years on the St Matthew’s and St Peter’s estates. Initial plans for this had now been agreed.
• The Green Team were working on site and landscape architects were redesigning internal courtyards.
• The service was ensuring that they knew what people wanted in the local area, this was an ongoing project and they would regularly be updating key stakeholders.
• Regarding Supporting Tenants and Residents (STAR), the service was dealing with 500+ cases at any one-time, coaching people in life skills and building trust and relationships with householders. Some of the most complex cases involved tenants who have mental health, substance issues and/or fleeing from violence and abuse. 
• The service was piloting the role of employment worker to increase the number of tenants on the pathway to work, although Covid was presenting additional challenges in this area.
• In 2019/20 1,416 short-term cases were supported, showing the perseverance of support workers.
• During the last lockdown, over 1500 food parcels were distributed.
• Lessons had been learned from the first lockdown.  Offices had been closed and work had focussed on the most vulnerable and essential work such as victims of domestic violence and fire safety.
• Where people had complex needs the service aimed to sensitively let properties to them.
• During the lockdown, lower level requests were places on hold.  Over 6,000 people had been contacted by telephone to see if they needed support (i.e. food parcels) and the same was being done on this lockdown.  The service was in a better position to deliver services this time round as they were better equipped.
• ASB and domestic violence had increased during the last lockdown and as such these issues were being prioritised.
• More entrenched cases of ASB were coming through.  Some of these were linked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.

The Director of Housing submits a report providing an update to Members of the ‘headline’ Housing Register and Lettings data, relating to Leicester City Council’s Housing Register.

The Director of Housing submitted a report providing an update to Members of the ‘headline’ Housing Register and Lettings data, relating to Leicester City Council’s Housing Register.

·         During the Covid-19 pandemic fewer properties came on to let and lets were done by direct match.

·         As of 1 October, there were 6342 households on the register – an increase of 3% on last year.

·         The highest demand (33%) was for two-bed accommodation.

·         Overcrowding was the biggest reason for joining the register, homelessness the second biggest.

·         There had been a decrease of 24% in Critical Overcrowding on the register since the previous year. 

·         There had been 439 lets in the last six months, a drop from 675.  The drop had been explained by the effects of the pandemic on stock and fewer people moving around.

·         Bands 1 and 2 accounted for 97% (418) of all lettings Band 3 accounted for 3% (21) of all lettings, mostly 1-bedroom accommodation

·         55% of lets were made to homeless households. 

·         50% of lettings were 1-bed dwellings.

·         From March-July housing registers across the country were closed.  The government had advised councils to use direct match and let process so those in critical need had some access.  In August and September, the register began to return to normal, but 40% of all lettings were done through direct lettings from April-September 2020.

·         Waiting times had increased and lockdown was partly the cause of this, however there was still an increase in waiting times once they had been adjusted to account for lockdown.  It was thought that this was due to the policy of more of those housed being Band 1 and as such the lower bands were impacted and there was an overall reduction in total lettings.  Since 50% of lets were 1-bed it had meant that families had needed to wait.  80% of 3-bed lets were in Band 1.  Waiting times would grow due to an increase in demand and a reduction in supply.

·         Work was going on to analyse the demand for adapted and accessible housing so that supply could be more equitably increased on these properties.

·         Applications within bands:

o   Applications in Band 1 were steady.  These were mainly from those with serious medical need, those experiencing critical overcrowding and homeless people.

o   Applications in Band 2 had decreased.  These were mainly from those with moderate medical needs, those experiencing severe overcrowding and homeless people

o   Applications in Band 3 had increased.   These were mainly from those experiencing non-severe overcrowding.

·         Lettings were going to those with the highest priorities.  Customer information had been produced to manage expectations and was broken down by size of property.

·         Leicester City Council was planning to create 1500 new affordable homes over the next four years and the need to make them equitable in terms of need was recognised.

·         The management of demand needed to be constantly challenged and reviewed.  Three areas were being focussed on:

o   How quotas could be used to increase fairness.

o   Access and health criteria.

o  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

The Director of Housing submits a report providing a further update to Members of the Executive and the Housing Scrutiny Commission on progress in implementing Leicester’s Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy 2018-2023, since the last update to Scrutiny in February 2020.

The Director of Housing submitted a report providing further update to Members of the Executive and the Housing Scrutiny Commission on progress in implementing Leicester’s Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy 2018-2023, since the last update to Scrutiny in February 2020.

·         From March the service had needed to react and respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.  They had needed to protect life and have an offer in place for people to have a safe place to live to protect them from the pandemic.  This had been a challenge for the service and the sector.

·         The Everyone In directive had allowed the service to help anyone in need, including those without recourse to public funds such as people from abroad without status in this country.

·         45 bed spaces had been lost due to Covid-19 as they were classed as shared sleeping arrangements.  Temporary accommodation had needed to be extended to fill gaps such as this.

·         The Early Prison Release scheme had put added pressure on the service.

·         More than 500 new single individuals had approached the service for help during the pandemic.

·         The service had entered into swift procurement of units that were safe and self-contained.  This had included block-booking hotels.

·         Volunteers had provided those in Bed and Breakfast accommodation to those who did not have access to food and delivered food parcels to those who could not shop.

·         24/7 support had been provided and the Police had been worked with, so they had an access route to bring people in.

·         Entrenched rough-sleepers had been brought in, and the service had been able to continue working with them in their accommodation.

·         Whilst cases of Covid-19 in this accommodation had been very low and not as bad as feared, a strategy still needed to be in place to manage cases.

·         Flu vaccinations had been rolled out for vulnerable homeless people.

·         Whilst Covid-19 cases had recovered over the summer, the service felt the need to continue with the initiative supporting homeless people as they were very aware that there would be a second wave.

·         There were currently 40 single people in Bed and Breakfast accommodation down from 180.  There was a priority to move people on in the Single Homeless Pathway.

·         In the Annual Spotlight count would take place in the next week and numbers on the street had reduced.

·         The first aim of the strategy was prevention, the MyHOME app had added an additional optional gateway for people to get help.  Prevention and recovery solutions remained high and the service were looking to sustain people’s current accommodation or failing that look for new accommodation before homelessness occurred.  If homelessness occurred, then the service would work to find accommodation as soon as possible.

·         LCC Homelessness Prevention & Support services have made it a priority to ensure that; through effective comms, partners, information on the website, and referral processes; people at risk of homelessness are aware that services are available and are available to access when they need to.  We believe this is the chief reason behind why  ...  view the full minutes text for item 105.

Members of the Commission will be asked to consider the work programme and make suggestions for additional items as it considers necessary.

Councillor Pickering proposed that ASB and crime be looked at again with an update.

Councillor Westley added that a report was due on the issue and that he was looking to set up a working party on the issue.

AGREED:

That the issue of Anti-Social Behaviour and Crime be added to the agenda for the next meeting of the Housing Scrutiny Commission.

Councillor Westley brought it to the attention of the commission that the government would shortly be making a decision on the Social Housing White Paper promising to strengthen standards for landlords and outlining how property ombudsmen would support tenants when things went wrong.  He emphasised that the White Paper was missing a commitment to building more social housing and that there was a petition to encourage this.  Councillor Westley encouraged those present to write to MPs to encourage them to get more social housing built.

The meeting ended at 8:41pm