Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies received

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

There were no declarations of interest

The minutes of the Strong and Supportive Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 9 November 2011 were approved as an accurate record.

The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two Members of a Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Commissions.If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Commission.

There were no requests for Call-in to consider

The report provided Members with an update on work being undertaken within Neighbourhoods in partnership with Children’s Services to tackle poverty in the city. It explained how tackling poverty was fundamental to the whole Sustainable Community Strategy and formed part of the Single Delivery Plan. The Officers informed the committee of the conference on Tackling Poverty that was held in December 2011 by Neighbourhood Services, Children’s Services and local Registered Social Landlords and the outcomes were laid out in the report.

The committee was asked to:

• Support the current work of the Tackling Poverty Partnership
• To be mindful of their statutory duty to address poverty through partnership working
• To understand the breadth of the workforce who need to be aware of tackling poverty in their work and decision taking
• To acknowledge the scale of the issue and give priority attention to it
• To consider  how poverty underpins all our work and commit to make this part of our core business

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Members were concerned with how Peterborough was coping with new arrivals and rough sleeping. The Social Inclusion Manager advised the committee that there had been a reduction in the number of rough sleepers amongst migrant workers. There had been a very coordinated approach when dealing with new arrivals who found themselves destitute.  Peterborough City Council were running a pilot scheme for a service that helped reconnect migrant workers and this was an ongoing project. Meetings were being held with Kingsgate and other churches and organisations such as the Soup Kitchen to provide a more coordinated approach to lift people out of poverty. New arrivals in to the city were being treated as any other individual in the city and would be fed in to the main stream services and offered opportunities. Welfare and benefit reforms had changed and migrant workers were now able to access benefits and welfare that they were previously unable to.

·         Members asked how up to date the figures were that had been quoted in the presentation Members were informed that the figures had been provided by Children’s Services at a conference that had been held in November and that the strategy had been written this year. The Head of Neighbourhoods advised the committee that the data from March 2011 related to the previous year and a lot of the data was from the annual return.

·          Members queried where the data had come from and felt that it was not providing an accurate picture. The Head of Neighbourhoods explained that most of the data in the presentation and within the report came from the Department for Works and Pensions because the measure of poverty was based upon the take up of certain benefits and that local proxy measures were also being used. Members were advised that the key information was the difference between the local and national average and the difference was the relative impact that was important and this would help understand the level of the problem  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

This report was presented to the Committee to provide Members with an update on the Homelessness Prevention report that was previously brought to Scrutiny on 9 March 2011 and to update members on the work being carried out by the Strategic Housing and Enforcement Officers in preventing homelessness in Peterborough.

The key issues raised in this report were as follows:

·         Homelessness in Peterborough

·         Rough Sleeping in Peterborough

·         Repossessions in Peterborough

·         The Rent Deposit Scheme

·         Single Persons Homelessness

·         Future Changes and the Impact on Peterborough

·         Changes to Local Housing Allowances and Welfare Reform

·         The Peterborough Homes Allocations Policy

·         Other Impacts on Homelessness in Peterborough

·         The Housing Enforcement Role in Preventing Homelessness

·         Empty Homes

·         The Work of Care and Repair Home Improvement Agency in Preventing Homelessness

·         Supporting People to Maintain their Accommodation

·         Taking households out of   Fuel Poverty – Providing Affordable Warmth for Vulnerable Householders

·         Implications

Members were asked to scrutinise the approaches taken and the progress and achievements made in relation to the homelessness prevention activity across the Strategic Housing Services and by Housing Enforcement Officers. Members were also asked to provide challenge where they felt necessary and to suggest ideas and initiatives to support further improvements.

Members were advised that the draft Homelessness Strategy, Housing Allocations Policy and Empty Homes Strategy was going to be brought back to the committee for Scrutiny at a later date. 

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Members were concerned that funding had been restricted for the Mortgage Rescue Scheme and wanted to know how effective the service would be.  Members were advised that the funding that was originally put in place was a national funding scheme that was operated regionally. It ran on a first come first served basis and for the first year the scheme was in place all funding was made use of. Due to lack of resources Central Government had decided that the scheme could not be sustained so they introduced a new product which was not as generous. The funding that was put in place had been reduced, the eligibility criteria had changed for mortgage rescue and the scheme became more difficult for households to access. Locally it was then decided that the funding would be split across the local authorities in the region which reduced the success rate down to two possible cases in Peterborough. This arrangement had now been changed and it was now far easier to access the funding and it had returned to the first come first serve basis. Officers were hopeful that Peterborough would take the majority of the nine allocations available to the eastern region.

·          Members asked the officer to describe how the system worked. Members were advised that in general a family would approach the council for help because they had fallen in to financial difficulties with their mortgage. The mortgage lender would then need to inform the housing department who would then write to the home owner. They would be referred through to the housing department and assessed.  If  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Forward Plan, containing key decisions that the Leader of the Council anticipated the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would make during the course of the following four months.  Members were invited to comment on the Plan and, where appropriate, identify any relevant areas for inclusion in the Committee’s work programme. 

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the Forward Plan and agreed that there were no items for further consideration.

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme for 2011/12 and discussed possible items for inclusion.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2011/12.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Wednesday 7 March 2012