Agenda item

The Chair of the Housing Scrutiny Task Group will submit and present the Scrutiny Review “Housing Crisis in Leicester” report.

The Chair of the Housing Scrutiny Task Group submitted the Scrutiny Review “Housing Crisis in Leicester” report.

On behalf of Councillor Gee who had chaired the task group, Councillor Westley stated the report followed one of the most important reviews that had been undertaken. He noted that officers in the Housing Division, Planning Team and Members had taken part in the task group meetings and were all thanked for their part. It had been opened up to all non-Executive Members, who had made significant and constructive contributions both during the review and in the framing of recommendations. Points made were:

·         The review had started in April 2022, and the economic developments since that time had highlighted and amplified the complex range of issues which made up the full picture of the housing crisis, which affected both public and private housing, as well as those who were homeless.

·         The Government had over time cut the support payments which directly helped people to meet housing costs and to support low-income households. With current inflation levels, it was putting more pressure on those who could least afford it.

·         Members believed a lack of affordable social housing was a major cause of the developing housing crisis. Land to build new homes had been identified as a critical issue in an already highly developed city, but the major drain on social housing for those in greatest need had been the Government’s continuing Right-to-Buy policy.

·         The Task Group had produced a range of recommendations, many of which were aimed at national Government, but also aimed at driving development and strategy at a local level. A framework for devising programmes and objectives had been identified in the recommendations which provided a guide for future work by the Housing Scrutiny Commission.

The Committee was asked to endorse the report prior to it being forwarded to the Executive. The Chair of the Housing Task Group also endorsed in particular the idea of further work on the Housing Crisis in Leicester by the Housing Scrutiny Commission to continue to develop the ideas of the task group, and that work should continue to set out programmes and define milestones and objectives for those programmes.

The City Mayor stated it was an excellent piece of work, and an example of good scrutiny and added to the good governance of the city by the Council. He added it was timely and he welcomed the reference to the problems caused by Right to Buy. He said he wanted people to be able to own their own homes if they so wished, but Right to Buy had significantly reduced the Council’s housing stock which prevents people who wanted to rent a council property from being able to do so, and that they had to largely rely on the private sector at much higher rents. He added that the pattern of housing in Leicester over recent decades had been the decline in housing that the Council were able to provide for people and denied people needing to rent a home the right to a decent landlord.

The Chair stated that this was an excellent piece of work and thanked Councillor Gee, Councillor Westley and the task group, the Assistant City Mayor for Housing and Education, and also the officers who had provided evidence throughout the review. 

The Chair supported the recommendations and asked that the Overview Select Committee be copied into the response from the Executive.

AGREED:

That:

1.    The Overview Select Committee support the recommendations.

2.    The Executive response to the report be provided to the Housing Scrutiny Commission and also copied to members of the Overview Select Committee.