Agenda item

The Scrutiny Commission is requested to consider and comment on the attached City Mayor’s Delivery Plan, Housing Contribution progress as at 30^th September 2014.

The Director of Housing submitted a report on the service elements in the City Mayor’s Delivery Plan that fell within the Housing Division, or which the Division made a contribution towards, and on progress up to 30^th September 2014.

The Director of Housing highlighted the following points in the report:

·         Good progress was being made on the provision of new affordable housing.

·         Preventing homelessness – the Service prevented homelessness for 1,525 household – a steady rate at 72%. The numbers of people contacting the Service had gone down slightly.

·         The Repeat Homeless list contained information on those people who had been in and out of hostels four or more times in the past two years, or who repeatedly slept rough. The number of people on the list fluctuated as people joined and left the list. Though it was a small amount of people, it took a lot of time and resources to help people into a settled lifestyle.

·         Other parts of the report talked about housings contribution to council-wide targets.

In response to a question, the Director of Housing said figures of homeless people on the list were a snapshot at different times in the year, i.e. 69 people on 31 March 2014, and 89 people as at the end of September 2014. She added the numbers would fluctuate, and it was too early to tell if winter would have a bearing on the figures. She added it was encouraging that 80 people had been able to get off the measure, were now settled and hadn’t been back to the Services; she said this was a huge achievement.

Members said they would have liked more information included under Item 3 in the report, as follows:

·         3.1 – how were graduates were recruited, from what areas, and were the unemployment levels quite high in those areas.

·         3.2 – which firms had been given assistance under Enterprising Leicester.

·         3.3 – the target number of homes to be assisted under the internal Home Improvement Agency.

·         3.4 – where work on properties in the city had taken place, and where uncompleted works remained.

·         3.5 – in what areas landlords received discretionary grants for home energy improvements.

·         3.6 – whether home repair grants were repayable, and what the figures were for the grants.

·         3.7 – a request was made for data on cases of anti-social behaviour dealt with by Neighbourhood Housing Offices, where the cases were in the city, and if there were any recurring hotspots.

·         3.8 Members were pleased advice was being given to tenants and members of the public, but had concerns over any funding change for the service.

Members were informed details on the issues raised would take some time to gather, but would be provided to them. Information under Item 3.7 would be provided on a confidential basis.

The Director of Housing said that people sleeping rough in the city centre are always offered help by the Outreach Team. She added the Housing Department worked closely with the police to identify people in the communities who might be begging, but did have somewhere to sleep.

Members were also told the Head of Services was working with the voluntary sector to prepare proposals for the allocation of £15k for schemes to address loneliness and isolation, and was work in progress.

The Chair welcomed the information, and considered apprenticeships in the Housing Department as a great step forward.

The Chair thanked the Director of Housing for the report, and looked forward to a future report in due course.

RESOLVED:

1.    that the report be received.

2.    that a breakdown of information requested be provided to Members, with anti-social behaviour cases by ward area and hotspots be provided on a confidential basis.