Agenda item

The Chair will provide details of the manifesto programme relating to the Commission’s remit.

The Director of Housing provided a verbal update on the manifesto programme relating the Housing Scrutiny Commission’s remit.

The Chair requested that the Vice-Chair of the Housing Scrutiny Commission work with the Director of Housing and the Assistant City Mayor for Housing and Education on the manifesto programme for relevant items.

The Director reported on Labour’s Manifesto commitments.  ‘For the Many not the Few’ contained eight specific sections covered within the document and that the Housing Division would continue to contribute towards many of the broader themes and elements within them. The following information was provided:

The document contained 12 main Manifesto commitments that the Housing Division had primary responsibility for delivering. Most of the commitments sat under the Manifesto section ‘Homes for All’.

Commitment to ‘Provide 1,500 more council, social and extra care homes’.

There were three proposed strands to delivering the commitment:

(i)          The first was a new residential acquisition programme involving buying available and suitable properties on the open market to be a part of Leicester’s Council property stock. Work had already started and since May 2019 the Local Authority had purchased or had offers accepted on 84 properties (£15m) with an ongoing pipeline of purchases being delivered during the manifesto term.

(ii)        The second was to deliver new build houses that again would become part of the Local Authority’s council stock. This work had also started, and planning permission and builder were already in place for the first phase of properties on five different sites, with a sixth pending planning to deliver the first new Council properties in a number of years (29 units). A second phase of sites had been identified and work was ongoing to submit planning applications for those sites. (110 units – 3 sites). Work was just commencing to consider an ongoing pipeline of potentially suitable sites to continue to deliver new build housing across the City.

(iii)       The third strand was to build new extra care schemes. The Housing Division had been working with Adult Social Care colleagues whom had recently identified the need for over 630 units over the next ten years. Work again had already commenced, with two specific Extra Care Schemes on Tilling Road and Hamelin Road (155 units) due to commence build in 2019/20. 

Although the full mix of the three strands had not currently been determined to deliver the 1,500 new council homes, work was ongoing.

Commitment to ‘Use our Housing company to tackle housing shortages’ would be met by what had been set out above. In extension to this the house building programme would be used to deliver house types not delivered by the market, including bungalows and adapted properties.

The Housing company will also be used to target hard to use / small and less profitable spaces that the open market did not find appetising.

The Housing company could also be used to deliver private rented sector accommodation (something that the Local Authority could not do).

Commitment to ‘Reduce the number of families and individuals placed in temporary accommodation’. Delivery of the new social housing set out in the above commitments would already deliver more permanent homes for the city and help deliver the commitment. In extension to and in line with the Homelessness Strategy, Housing would be working to maximise existing Homelessness services to achieve the best prevention rates it could. It was also intended to continue to bid for additional funding that could be used to enhance Homelessness services. In the last year Housing had been successful in bidding for almost £1million of extra funding that had gone to increasing front line Homelessness services. Work had already been approved to deliver greater types of stepped accommodation for differing needs and client groups, which would enable the Local Authority to offer more suitable types of property to greater meet customer needs. Work had also already started to re-procure existing Leicester City Council provision to deliver more units that the council had previously had and to look to reconfigure the Council’s internal services and accommodation to also achieve the commitment. Housing were also working closely with registered providers and had a number of new agreements in place for them to provide more permanent accommodation to those facing homelessness through the Housing First route.

Commitment to ‘Ensure that no-one has to sleep rough on our streets’. The Council already had very strong services to deliver on the commitment and while all of what had already been reported would feed into strengthening delivery of the commitment, continuing to deliver the remaining actions within the Homeless strategy would also deliver the commitment. Work had started to increase the amount of single temporary accommodation available in the City. Work was also already ongoing to enhance the Outreach and Revolving Door services to refine and enhance Housing’s offer. Housing were also working to deliver a second safe space providing more sharp end beds, and there was additional funding to support people into accommodation, and there was additional staff working to source additional private sector accommodation. Officers were also developing closer working arrangements with the prison to ensure people leaving Leicester Prison had a clear pathway and service. Close working relations continued through the Homelessness Charter with lots of stakeholders whom had a passion to meet the commitment.

Commitment to ‘Establish a residential facility for people experiencing multiple and complex needs, many of whom are rough sleeping’. Work was ongoing, and a final business case was currently being prepared for consideration of the City Mayor to create a facility which would provide a further type of accommodation to meet those most complex customers, supporting up to 12 complex clients to get the help and support they needed to address their personal issues.

Commitment to ‘Support further work to meet complex needs experienced by women and Black and Minority Ethnic communities who may not be sleeping on our streets but are homeless’. While no specific needs or gaps were identified in the thorough Homelessness services review in 2017, to meet the commitment it was proposed to do a more focussed piece of work to identify any weaknesses or gaps which required a response and action.

Commitment to ‘Make Leicester a place of refuge for those fleeing conflict across the World, with a comprehensive offer of housing, support and learning’. Leicester City Council gave the commitment to offer a place of safety and home to 45 families as part of the Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme. It was confirmed Leicester was meeting the obligation with 36 families housed and supported to start new lives in Leicester with the further nine planned over the next 12 months. Housing were working closely with the new provider of Asylum Seeker services to develop a more effective pathway for those receiving positive decisions. We are also working with groups through the Homelessness charter especially Red Cross to enhance support and help for refugees and asylum seekers facing destitution.

Commitment to ‘Maintain our existing adaptations services for all homeowners and undertake a programme of council housing adaptations to allow people with disabilities to remain or move into our properties’. The City Mayor through the Disabled Facilities Grant Budget already provided £2.1m to provide adaptations for people that needed them in Leicester. Through the Housing Revenue Account the City Mayor also provided a further £1.2m specifically for Council tenants. Both delivered over 370 adaptations for the people of Leicester, and the Housing teams worked closely with Adult Social Care colleagues in order to deliver them. A detailed review had started of all cases that required adapted properties on the Housing register in order to work towards positive individual solutions for them. A budget of £500k had also been set up that would support the commitment and also meet the next commitment of;

Commitment to ‘Establishing a home extension fund for council tenants to reduce overcrowding in council properties’. Cases that were severely or statutorily overcrowded on the housing register would be reviewed to see if it was possible to extend the families’ existing home to address the overcrowding.

Committed to continue to ‘Undertake an ongoing £80m council home improvement programme’ during the next 4 years. For 2019 alone investment of over £26m would be going in to maintain and improve current council housing stock and that capital investment would continue to be used to achieve the improvement programme exceeding the £80m commitment.

Commitment to ‘Continue our environmental investment programme on council land and estates’. To meet this commitment it was proposed to continue to invest more than £750,000 in estates using Housing’s environmental budget. It was also proposed to continue to fund the Neighbourhood Improvement and also the Estate Warden services whose primary focusses were estate-based improvement work. The house building work on estates would also enable investment in improving estates as well as addressing banks of land that could be a target for fly tipping/ASB and environmental issues.

Commitment to ‘Provide Free Wifi on council estates’. The commitment was specifically to ensure that as with the City Centre where free wifi could be obtained in external communal areas the same opportunities were rolled out in our estates. Work had already started with Corporate colleagues and discussions were ongoing with a number of companies to deliver this.

In response to Commission Members’ questions, the following information was given and noted:

·         The 1,500 units were primarily social housing in three streams: council house building, acquiring and extra care, working with housing associations and cooperatives. Money could be used and given to registered providers to help them deliver some of the 1,500 affordable housing units.

·         £250k was available for grants to repair private properties.

·         Dropped kerb requested made by council tenants would usually be forwarded to Highways and would be looked at on an individual basis.

·         Each development site would have an individual business case to determine the mix and type of accommodation and would provide the opportunity to progress and develop different techniques, for example, methods of build. Each development would be discussed with ward councillors

·         The first housing would be delivered through the Housing Revenue Account and would be part Right-to-Buy receipts and part borrowing funded. The authority could deliver some for-sale housing, the funds of which would be recycled to provide social housing.

·         With regards to climate change, from a house building perspective it was important to make properties as energy efficient as possible, with a balance against build cost. Housing were also working with fleet colleagues to replace old vehicles with electric or less polluting vehicles.

·         There was potential for buying back ex-local authority properties and influencing the housing market and the authority would never pay over the market value. The law did not protect the property from Right-to-Buy in the future, but there was a cost floor for 15 years that will ensure that the purchase price restricts the level of discount that can be obtained.

·         Of the 5,800 people on the waiting list 3,400 were in overcrowded housing. Equally there were a number of people under-occupied. It had previously been reported that a pilot had taken place to try and marry up overcrowding and under-occupancy. A further report was scheduled to come to a future meeting of the Commission.

·         Planning submissions over a certain size had Section 106 (S.106) obligations and was managed by the Planning Department. S.106 monies should be usually spent in the area of the development. Equally the developer might provide a service to the area, for example, a play area. Members queried whether all S.106 money was spent in the areas. The Director of Housing would raise the query with Planning and provide information to Commission Members.

·         Depending on where a development was in would dictate the number of affordable housing that needed to be built.

·         29 new affordable houses would be delivered in the first phase of Housing Leicester Council Housing, and contracts would have clauses to engage with the local workforce, including providing apprenticeships, and would be monitored by the Council.

·         Provision of housing for those with complex needs was being considered and this was being led by Public Health and overseen by the Health & Wellbeing groups. The aim would be to have wrap-round support to those in this accommodation.

The Chair requested that a report be provided to the Scrutiny Commission setting out how the manifesto commitments would be fulfilled, the timetable for delivery, and an item to be added to the work programme for the Commission for an update be provided every three months. It was also requested that a copy of the manifest be sent to each Commission Member.

AGREED:

That:

1.    the update be noted.

2.    a report be brought to the next meeting of the Commission with detail on how the manifesto commitments would be fulfilled and a timetable for delivery.

3.    the manifesto commitments be added to the Commission work programme.

4.    a copy of the manifesto be sent to each Commission Member.