Agenda item

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 was for those who did not have a pressing need to move and no defined housing need, as such the other bands of need would always take priority over band E. For that reason some Councils did not have a Band E. Mid Devon District Council kept the band as it gave better housing data.
• There were 59 households in temporary accommodation at the time of the meeting. They were housed in bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels and the Council’s own stock. There were 25 households which were families with children under the age of 18 and none of those were hotel or bed and breakfast accommodation, they were in the Council’s own stock.
• As the District subscribes to DHC, people from anywhere in Devon can move into Mid Devon (and vice versa), families could move into a bungalow if it was deemed suitable.
• There were approximately 24 registered providers of housing across Devon. To be a large provider you need to have more than 1000 homes.
• If an occupant’s circumstances improved would their rent be increased? This was unlikely as once a tenant had security of tenure, the legislation protected them from being evicted or any significant changes made to their rental agreement.
• DHC were not signatories to the Armed Forces Covenant but DHC followed all the requirements of it. Priority was given to armed forces personnel.
• Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO’s) had their own legislation – Was it possible to partner with the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) - licencing requirements required an in depth review by DSFRS which the Council could do in house. If HMO’s were unlicensed then the Local Authority could close it or get the Landlord to license it.
• Appropriateness of property where a family had lived there a long time and the space had become inappropriate due to (for instance) a teenage boy and a girl now needing separate bedrooms having lived in the same accommodation since they were young children – should they not become a priority? This was where the inadequate supply of housing was causing problems to families. Councillors enquired as to whether a tweak could be made to our Council’s rules to give greater priority to those already in our own or DHC stock that need to move to a different size of property thereby freeing up that property for someone else.
• Flexible Tenancies Review coming to the Homes PDG– recommendation to have an additional Working Group to encourage people to move out of larger properties.

The Committee NOTED the report and the following recommendations:

1.    The review of DHC provided in the context of the current statutory and regulatory framework and proposed legal reforms.

2.    That DHC provides assurance and compliance against current legal requirements including for the provision of a transparent and accountable allocation scheme that meets the needs of specific priority groups and vulnerable residents.

3.    The ongoing, cyclical DHC policy review process to ensure it remains fit-for-purpose and that any proposed changes to DHC Policy arising from this will be brought to Homes PDG and Cabinet for due consideration for adoption.

4.    That DHC is an allocations process that in itself it cannot directly address the current overarching shortage of social housing locally.

5.    That the ongoing corporate risk for the housing crisis and mitigation measures together with the pending review of the current Mid Devon Housing Strategy 2021-25 as a mechanism to address the local response to the wider shortage of affordable housing.

Note: * Report previously circulated.