Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Corporate Manager for Public Health, Regulation and Housing

The Committee had before it, and NOTED a report* from the Corporate Manager for Public Health, Regulation and Housing on the Devon Home Choice.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property Services highlighted the following within the report:

• The briefing given to Members in February was annexed to the report. The long standing priorities to the homeless and those with health and wellbeing needs were noted but it also included the Council’s Corporate Parenting responsibilities towards care leavers alongside meeting new requirements of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).
• The review also set out how DHC aligned well with proposed national social housing allocation reforms including national and local connection tests and anti-social behaviour. Overall, the Council were in a housing crisis where demand significantly outstripped supply. 
• The review concluded that the fair choice based legal letting scheme provided by DHC was both compliant with the Council’s regulatory requirements and essential to help manage this pressure.
• Only more social housing would fix the issue of too many people needing too few available affordable homes. As the report highlighted, given those housing shortages DHC were working as well as was possible for Mid Devon with 86% of let’s going to people moving within Mid Devon and almost 100% of those within Devon.

The Corporate Manager for Public Health, Regulation and Housing highlighted the following within the report:

• Local context – The scheme had been in place for 14 or 15 years and included all 10 local authorities in Devon and 24 major housing providers. It provided access to around 60,000 properties across Devon of which Mid Devon owned about 3,000.
• Legal framework – Since 1996 the Council has had to give priority to certain groups including those who were  homeless, those housed in exceptionally poor accommodation where it was having an impact upon their health and wellbeing and other groups who were vulnerable. New priorities had been added by Central Government such as those fleeing domestic violence, former and current members of the armed forces and recently corporate parenting. New requirements were being set by the new Regulator of Social Housing.
• Policy - Local connection – The Council was required to take into account the needs of tenants. How did the bandings work? – There was a bedroom need – a property cannot be under or over occupied. The housing geographical variance of housing supply pressures table showed the Council as performing near the middle of all the Councils across Devon. For every home that was let, there were 4.6 people looking to rent that property.
• Impending legal reforms – DHC aligned well with those proposals.
• Review process – There was an annual review of the policy.
• DHC provides choice – It was a choice based letting system. Worth staying with this system and the Council not developing its own which would be much more expensive and would only give a choice of 3,000 homes. DHC could not fix the housing stock problems.

Discussion took place with regards to:

• Band E  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85