to consider the following question received in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 8:
(a) From Cllr Baldry to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
‘According to a report in the local press, new Housing Benefit claimants in the South Hams had to wait more than 3 weeks (23 days) for their claims to be processes. The figures are for April 2017 to March 2018. This is worse than the British average and exceeds the legal requirement for claims to be processed within 2 weeks.
Would the Executive Member comment on the figures please? Housing Benefit / Universal Credit is not a luxury that people can wait for.’
(NOTE. Cllr Birch has provided the following preamble to questions (b), (c), (d) and (e)):
In the introduction to the 2017/18 Annual Report, the following is stated: “One of the key priorities over the coming year will be to research the possible building of Council houses to support the need of affordable houses for the residents of the South Hams.”
(b) From Cllr Birch to Cllr Tucker, Leader of Council
‘What research has been carried out in respect of the building of affordable social rented housing by the Council and, if such research has been carried out, when will its findings be shared with Members? Who has carried out the research on behalf of the Council?
(c) From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
‘What fresh initiatives are planned by the Council to reduce the current Housing Waiting List which stands at 1,635?
(d) From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
‘What is the Council’s target for the provision of affordable social rented housing in the South Hams for the years 2018/19 and 2019/20?’
(e) From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
‘In respect of the numbers provided in response to the previous question, how many is it anticipated will be provided by:
- The Community Housing Strategy;
- Registered Providers; and
- Developers pursuant to Section 106 Agreements?’
(f) From Cllr Hodgson to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
‘Over the past five years, how much money has been channelled through SHDC to Housing Associations to assist them in the delivery of affordable housing and how many affordable homes has this delivered?’
(g) From Cllr Hodgson to Cllr Tucker, Leader of Council
‘What legal right does the Council have to prevent local Members from attending meetings in their ward that the Council has organised? With regard to the recent meeting between Totnes Town Councillors and SHDC Executive Members and SHDC officers, what was the basis of refusing the attendance of the local Ward Members?
(h) From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
‘How many affordable social rented houses have been facilitated by the Council in the last five years?’
Minutes:
34/18
It was noted that eight questions had been received in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 8.
From Cllr Baldry to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
(a) ‘According to a report in the local press, new Housing Benefit claimants in the South Hams had to wait more than 3 weeks (23 days) for their claims to be processes. The figures are for April 2017 to March 2018. This is worse than the British average and exceeds the legal requirement for claims to be processed within 2 weeks.
Would the Executive Member comment on the figures please? Housing Benefit / Universal Credit is not a luxury that people can wait for.’
In response, Cllr Bastone stated that the report in the local press had been produced by a national charity and distributed to all local press agencies across the country and the article did contain a number of inaccurate facts. Unfortunately, Cllr Bastone advised that our local press had not contacted the Council for comment or had shared the article with the Council ahead of publication.
Cllr Bastone proceeded to inform that the national target for the processing of New Claims for Housing Benefit was 24 days. Therefore, he was pleased to reassure the Council that processing times were within target during the period stated. Furthermore, the service in the last two months had been less than 21 days, which equated to top quartile performance for New Claim processing. Whilst there was not a legal requirement to process claims within two weeks, it was acknowledged that there was a historic Performance Indicator.
Finally, Cllr Bastone had received assurances from the Community Of Practice Lead for Housing, Revenues and Benefits that there were sufficient safeguards in place to ensure that cases were prioritised in the event of there being a genuine threat of homelessness.
From Cllr Birch to Cllr Tucker, Leader of Council
(b) ‘What research has been carried out in respect of the building of affordable social rented housing by the Council and, if such research has been carried out, when will its findings be shared with Members? Who has carried out the research on behalf of the Council?
Cllr Tucker replied that the Place Making Team had not looked at the council building Social Rented housing. The Assets team were looking into the feasibility of a small Social Rented housing scheme, factoring in the economics of cost savings on rehousing resident’s currently occupying temporary Bed & Breakfast accommodation.
In addition, Cllr Tucker informed that the whole of the south west had been included in the recent announcement by the government to be eligible for funding from Homes England to deliver Social Rent in High Value areas. Enabling officers were asking RP’s to deliver Social Rent on Section 106 schemes where possible. This was a recent announcement and therefore we were yet to see where this could be delivered. This would also be factored in to the SPD which was currently being written.
A supplementary question was raised by Cllr Birch that sought assurances that the background research would be shared with the wider membership. In response, Cllr Tucker confirmed that, as and when sites came forward, local Ward Members would be kept fully informed. Cllr Tucker also made the point that, at the time when formal approval was required, all Members would have access to the published Executive agenda papers.
From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
(c) ‘‘What fresh initiatives are planned by the Council to reduce the current Housing Waiting List which stands at 1,635?
Cllr Bastone replied that the questioner would be aware that the Council currently operated an open waiting list and, therefore, anyone could apply to join.
Of those 1,635 households on the register, Cllr Bastone asked the Council to note that 860 were categorised as having no housing need. The Council was reminded that a recommendation to continue registering applicants with no housing need was approved by Members twelve months ago, as this category was particularly pertinent in rural areas where local connection overrode housing need because of the Section 106 criteria.
As a result, the Housing Register was made up of 775 applicants who were deemed to be in Housing Need.
Cllr Bastone then advised that the Council’s 2018 Homeless Strategy Action Plan outlined the initiatives that the Council had launched or continued during this Financial Year. No housing issue was a standalone issue and, as a consequence, Cllr Bastone stated that all of the actions in the Plan were designed to impact on reducing homelessness, increasing homelessness prevention and therefore reducing the high demand from people in Housing Need on the Housing Register. Some of these key initiatives included:
- The re-launch of Direct Lets as Seamoor Lettings, with a target to increase the number of properties being let by 10. This scheme was designed to offer an affordable alternative to social housing in a district where private rents were disproportionately high;
- The continued delivery of money advice to enable as many people as possible to sustain their current tenancies and therefore reduce the need for people to move;
- The continued delivery of tenancy support for the same purpose;
- The development of a Landlord Forum to improve partnership working with the private rented sector and increase the number of affordable private rented properties available;
- To improve partnership working with partnership agencies (such as Children’s Services) to improve early interventions and reduce crisis situations from arising that could lead to a housing need;
- To work with young people in schools to promote housing education;
- To improve internal partnership working to ensure that all potential housing options were being considered for vulnerable households in forums such as the Disabled Adapted Needs Panel; and
- The Waiting List was reviewed on a quarterly basis to review applicants that were not bidding, not logging on or were regularly refusing properties to ensure that these applicants wished to remain on the Register and to check whether any additional support was required.
In addition to the above, Cllr Bastone advised that, the Joint Local Plan, once adopted, would include the Village Housing Initiative as a Policy for Exception Sites, which was previously an initiative. Cllr Bastone also noted that other issues that were being considered included the provision of self / custom build (linked to the Community Housing Programme), a self-build scheme for ex-service personnel similar to the Nelson Project in Plymouth, the provision of Mortgages aimed at enabling tenants to purchase on the open market and modular build methods. In his concluding comments, Cllr Bastone stated that these initiatives would, in turn, release affordable rented accommodation which would be re-let to those on the waiting list, working with Devon County Council to seek accommodation for those applicants with specific needs.
Whilst not directly related to the question, Cllr Bastone also wished to extend his congratulations to the Benefits Team who had recently been judged as the Council’s ‘Team of the Year’ at the recent staff recognition awards.
In responding to a supplementary question regarding the percentage of New Homes Bonus monies that were invested in initiatives to reduce the Waiting List numbers, Cllr Bastone informed that he would provide an answer in writing to Cllr Birch outside of this meeting.
From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
(d) ‘What is the Council’s target for the provision of affordable social rented housing in the South Hams for the years 2018/19 and 2019/20?’
In his response, Cllr Bastone informed that the number of social rented properties was difficult to predict as this had recently been announced as a tenure which could receive grant. It was intended that officers would be meeting with Homes England to see how the Council could increase the delivery of Social Rent with Registered Providers who operated in this area.
Cllr Bastone proceeded to advise that, since this funding was a recent announcement, for the years stated there would be zero social rented properties as planning permission would have been granted for the properties that were in the pipeline. However, Cllr Bastone asked for it to be noted that previously the Government aimed all affordable housing at Affordable Rent tenure and did not allow for rents to increase but to reduce.
It was intended that the emerging Joint Local Plan Supplementary Planning Document would allow for a percentage of Social Rented accommodation. Without grant, Cllr Bastone stated that the economic viability of a development would support a lower proportion of Social Rented than Affordable Rented (as the rental levels were lower) and, as such, Members could have the difficult decision of a higher number of Affordable Rented accommodation or a lower number of Social Rented accommodation depending on the viability. In addition, officers would be requesting that developers and their partners present both options to Members (where possible) for a decision to be made.
Affordable Rented and Intermediate Home Ownership figures that were brought forward with Registered Providers through Section 106 obligations were as follows:
- Affordable Homes delivered in 2017/18 = 160;
- Projected Affordable Home completions for 2018/19 = 96; and
- Projected Affordable Home completions for 2019/20 = 301.
In responding to a supplementary, Cllr Bastone reaffirmed some of the points raised in his initial answer and confirmed that each of his responses would be forwarded to all Members outside of this meeting.
From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
(e) ‘In respect of the numbers provided in response to the previous question, how many is it anticipated will be provided by:
- The Community Housing Strategy;
- Registered Providers; and
- Developers pursuant to Section 106 Agreements?’
Cllr Bastone replied by referring to his previous response (as outlined above) for the details pertaining to Registered Providers and Section 106 properties.
Specifically with regard to Community Housing, the five year projections (for units) was as per the table below:
|
|
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
Total |
|
Planning application (total units) |
22 |
30 |
30 |
30 |
30 |
144 |
|
Commence construction |
|
22 |
30 |
30 |
30 |
112 |
|
Completion |
|
|
22 |
30 |
30 |
82 |
In presenting these figures, Cllr Bastone advised that provision had been included for re-design / unit number reduction.
From Cllr Hodgson to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
(f) ‘Over the past five years, how much money has been channelled through SHDC to Housing Associations to assist them in the delivery of affordable housing and how many affordable homes has this delivered?’
By way of a breakdown, Cllr Bastone advised that:
For 2013/14:
- Devon and Cornwall Housing: £240,000 Culverdale, Totnes;
- South Devon Rural Housing Association: £60,000 Avondale;
- South Devon Rural Housing Association: £20,108.18 Parkfield, Thurlestone; and
- Devon and Cornwall Housing: £49,469 Greenbanks, Slapton.
For 2014/15:
- Devon and Cornwall Housing: £60,000 Culverdale, Totnes.
For 2015/16:
- Westward Housing: £80,000 Follaton Oak;
- Guinness Partnership: £500,000 Totnes Riverside;
- Hastoe Housing Association: £101,769 Frogmore; and
- South Devon Rural Housing Association: £40,000 Moreleigh.
For 2016/17:
- Devon and Cornwall Housing: £60,000 Newton Ferrers.
For 2017/18:
- Devon and Cornwall Housing: £20,000 Newton Ferrers; and
- South Devon Rural Housing Association: £55,000 (to facilitate the purchase of a specifically adapted property).
In response to a supplementary question regarding a recent comment made by the Chief Executive of South Devon Rural Housing Association, Cllr Bastone suspected that the funding that he had referred to had been obtained from Homes England.
From Cllr Hodgson to Cllr Tucker, Leader of Council
(g) ‘What legal right does the Council have to prevent local Members from attending meetings in their ward that the Council has organised?
With regard to the recent meeting between Totnes Town Councillors and SHDC Executive Members and SHDC officers, what was the basis of refusing the attendance of the local Ward Members?
In his response, Cllr Tucker expressed his confusion over the question and stated that local Ward Members had not been prevented from attending these meetings. In terms of the process that had been followed, Cllr Tucker advised that each local Town Council had been asked who they wished to attend their meeting. In the instance of the meeting that had been held with Totnes Town Council representatives, it was in fact the wish of that Council to not involve any local Ward Members.
In her supplementary question, Cllr Hodgson asked whether, given the concerns that had been subsequently raised, Cllr Tucker still felt it to be the correct decision. In his response, Cllr Tucker confirmed that he stood by the process that had been followed for each of these meetings.
From Cllr Birch to Cllr Bastone, lead Executive Member for Customer First
(h) ‘How many affordable social rented houses have been facilitated by the Council in the last five years?’
In reply, Cllr Bastone advised that Members had agreed to adopt the Affordable Rent Model on 14 July 2011. In Appendix 1 of this report, Members were provided with the assurance that the rent on affordable properties would not exceed the Local Housing Allowance for the area. If Members wished to look at these agenda papers, the minute reference was E.06/11.
Cllr Bastone responded to a supplementary question by confirming that he would ensure that the related agenda papers that underpinned this matter in July 2011 would be circulated to the wider membership for their information and reference.