Agenda item

The Director of Housing submits a report which seeks the view of Members of the Scrutiny Commission on changes to the Housing Allocations Policy.

The Director of Housing and Assistant Mayor for Housing submitted a report -regarding recent consultation on the Housing Allocations Policy - which was presented by the Head of Service (Homelessness Section), and Service Manager (Housing Options). The Executive had sought the views of the Housing Scrutiny Commission on the proposed changes to the Housing Allocations Policy.

The Department for Communities and Local Government had issued guidance in June 2012 and December 2013 requiring housing authorities to review their existing housing allocation policies.

 Proposed changes to four areas of the Allocations Policy were set out in Appendix 1 of the report:

·         To give consideration to those who need to live in the city, to give or receive support from close family members, subject to meeting at least one of the outlined criteria, for example, to only consider applicants currently working within the city of Leicester for the last 12 months.

·         To exclude people who owned their own home from joining the housing register unless there were extenuating circumstances, for example if the occupant was facing homelessness or fleeing from violence.

·         To exclude households who had financial resources to secure alternative accommodation, i.e. households with a total income of £25k per year (single household), £40k per year (joint households), or capital assets of over £50k, to ensure social housing was allocated to those with the greatest household need.

·         To give priority to working households or those in local training schemes who needed to move closer to their occupations.

As the proposed changes were considered to be major, it had been necessary to consult with registered social housing providers which had nomination agreements with the council, and consultation closed on 16 January 2015, and had received a total of 52 responses. The results were reported as follows.

The results of the consultation, and comments from Housing Scrutiny Commission Members, would be reported to the Executive for a decision.

Members said they were disappointed at the small number of people who had taken part in the consultation, and that it would be difficult to ascertain a true picture of city views from those results. Members said the changes appeared to be draconian and a way of removing people from the Housing Register. they also queried the right for people who owned their own homes to be allowed to go onto the housing register. They added that given the current housing shortage, they agreed the proposals suggested in the report were the best the City Council could provide.

Officers reported a wording change in Appendix 1 (1) of the report, under the Leicester City Requirement, the council was proposing a strong local connection to the city, and between proposals should read ‘or’.

In response to a request from Members, comparison work with Nottingham, Derby and Northampton Councils would be circulated to Members of the Scrutiny Commission.

The Chair asked that officers note the comments of Members, and to report back to the Executive that they had a few concerns. This minutes was subsequently altered to read “They also asked that wider member consideration of the report would be required”.

RESOLVED:

1.    that the Commission note the report.

2.    that comparison work with Nottingham, Derby and Northampton, be circulated to Members.