To receive a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Housing, Assets and Property regarding his portfolio.
Minutes:
The Committee received and NOTED a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Housing, Assets and Property Services.
The Cabinet Member thanked officers and the Mid Devon Housing Team for their dedication, professionalism, endeavours and achievements. He said “we punch above our weight and were regarded as an exemplar local authority and a national lead for our proactive approach. We should be proud”. He also thanked the Homes Policy Development Group for their hard work and efforts in bringing forward policy and continuing to establish working groups to facilitate that.
The Cabinet Member highlighted
· Moving away from flexible tenancies to secure tenancies and in so doing freeing up officer time to deal with other matters.
· The Council were aware of their duty to be fiscally responsible.
· The Council’s duty to provide safe, secure and affordable housing to families and individuals who were unable to access private housing.
· The Council had made a commitment to Net Zero.
· Mid Devon Homes (MDH) had eight objectives to try to strive for continuous improvement and were well on course to achieve those objectives.
· At a meeting the Cabinet Member had attended with the Housing Ombudsman, Mid Devon District Council officers were leading the meeting.
· The Council was accelerating new social /affordable housing projects.
· The modular homes plan was well underway with Shapland Place and St Andrews developments receiving a number of national awards.
· The greatest concern was getting those homes linked to utilities whose providers were slow to react.
· An aim was to encourage people to buy and stay in the area rather than leave at the age of 25 and return at the age of 55.
· Grant funding had been secured by officers who had a good relationship with Homes England.
· The quarterly updates to the Homes Policy Development Group were the best seen in five years.
· There had been huge strides in tenant engagement which had much improved from five years ago with social media and schemes like the “Best Kept Garden” a competition over seven different categories; a quarterly newsletter including advice and features such as a recipes page; “New Tenant” information packs, an “affordability wheel” to assist new tenants.
· The Cabinet Member mentioned, roadshows, Churches Housing Action Team (CHAT), Exeter Community Energy Project, Police engagement, six monthly estate walks and new environmental projects such as a small community orchard on old allotments at Uplowman and a possible community orchard at St Georges Court.
· MDH had received over 20 awards in the last year for development, net zero/modular homes/and in the prevention of damp and mould. The Council was a national lead and officers were invited abroad to liaise with other authorities on “the Council’s approach”.
· The Local Authority Housing Fund had been used towards the purchase of 12 properties for the use of those who would otherwise be homeless avoiding the funds being spent on bed and breakfast or hotel accommodation. This was helping to overcome homelessness pressures and meet the Council’s refugee legislation commitment.
· Those houses would become long term Council assets such as Belmont Road and St Pauls.
· Care leaver accommodation in dedicated units with the Housing Revenue Account new build programme, again showing Mid-Devon leading the way.
· New development accelerated new council housing delivery with high quality build and ultra-low running costs for tenants.
Challenges
· There was a generational change in the consumer regime with new consumer standards/ RSH inspection, which was like an Ofsted for Housing.
· The Housing Ombudsman was driving complaints but MDH were leading the way on complaints handling and using complaints to drive service change/continuous improvement.
· Utility Companies delays regarding new development. Unfortunately, the Council had no control or leverage.
· There were challenges in recruiting trades professionals, which had particularly been affected by the closure of Petroc building apprenticeships.
· The change in Central Government had meant that there was a lot of uncertainty around “Right to Buy” and affordable housing delivery support.
· Future pipeline of development – where would the land be coming from.
· Financial risk from “Claim Farming”, recently three claims for disrepair had been filed against the Council and all three had been defended successfully.