Agenda and minutes

No apologies were received.

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council.

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 Governance Officer informed the Committee that the previous minutes of the meeting held on 20 November 2012 had been amended and the amended copy was distributed to members for approval.

The minutes of the Strong and Supportive Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 20 November 2012 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

This report was presented to the committee to provide them with the final report of the Citizen Power Task and Finish Group.

Citizens Power was a two year collaboration between the City Council, the Arts Council and the Royal Society for the Arts. The programme was delivered through six distinct strands of work:

·         The Peterborough Curriculum

·         Recovery Capital

·         Sustainable Citizenship

·         Changemakers

·         Civic Commons

·         Arts and Social Change

During 2011 a full review of the Citizens Power Programme was undertaken and reported to the Strong and Supportive Communities Scrutiny Committee in September 2011. The report and its recommendations were agreed in full and a Task and Finish Group was established as a result.

The Committee was asked to agree the conclusions and recommendations contained within the report and make any further recommendations to the Council for consideration in any future planned schemes.

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

• Members queried the total cost of the Citizens Power Programme and how many organisations had participated. Councillor Casey advised members that the total cost of the whole project was £1,195,775 although Peterborough City Council had only contributed £250,000 towards the project. The other two main partners were the Arts Council and the Royal Society for Arts and when the project started it attracted further funding.
• Members were concerned that the Royal Society for Arts and the Arts Council were funded by Peterborough City Council therefore the money to fund the project was generated from the taxpayer.
• Members commented that some strands of the Citizen Power Programme did not represent good value for money or positive outcomes and they were disappointed that this was not reflected in the recommendations put forward by the Task and Finish Group. Councillor Casey reiterated that Peterborough City Council had only contributed £250,000 towards the project and they had actually encouraged other organisations to help fund the rest of the project. There were strands of the Citizen Power Project that had shown positive outcomes.
• Members queried the outcome of a survey held in Bretton six months ago by the Royal Society of Arts regarding Community Interaction. The Head of Neighbourhood Services advised members that the survey was not part of the Citizens Power Programme, although he would obtain the results of the survey and advise the Committee of the outcome.
• The Executive Director of Operations commented that he was part of the Peterborough Learning Partnership and Chair of Governors of a school that was not involved in the Citizens Power programme.  However he had subsequently learnt from the programme by working with some of the associate Heads of schools within that learning partnership and they were continuing to build on the change within the local curriculum. The recovery capital and the drugs programme had been embedded within the commissioning process. He also explained that a bulk of the Royal Society of Arts funding was generated through the thirty five thousand members who financially contributed to them.
• The Head of Neighbourhood Services commented that the Citizens  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The purpose of this report was to provide the Committee with an update on the progress of the Homelessness Strategy 2008 – 2012 and associated outputs and the development of the Homelessness Review and Draft Homelessness Strategy 2013 – 2018.

The following key points were highlighted:

The Homelessness Strategy 2008 – 2012

·         The current Homelessness Strategy had been successful in building on the preventative approach and ensured that there were the necessary support services in place to act as a safety net for persons who were threatened with homelessness or who were facing homelessness.

·         In 2011/12 the Council and its partners prevented and relieved homelessness for 258 households.

·         There were continual challenges with a shortage of social housing and the impact of welfare reforms.

·         In 2011/2 the Housing Needs team provided housing and homelessness advice to 14,568 people in Peterborough.

·         The Housing Needs Team had seen a decrease in homelessness presentations to the Local Authority over the 2011/12 period compared with 2010/11.

·         The Housing Needs Service offered a Rent Deposit Scheme which enabled clients to obtain an interest free loan to be used for the up front costs associated with securing a property within the private sector. In 2011/12 a total of 191 households were assisted in to private rented sector accommodation and so far this year, since April 2012, 276 households had been assisted.

·         The Tenancy Relations Service had further developed to provide support to both tenants and private sector landlords. The service had been had been successful in establishing a framework for illegal evictions and utilised its power to prosecute under the Protection of Eviction Act 1977 by successfully prosecuting three landlords through the court system alongside supporting 194 households since January 2012.

·         The Mortgage Rescue scheme had been proactively promoted and this had further enhanced Peterborough’s homelessness prevention activity and increased the number of properties owned and managed by the Council’s housing association partners. Since the introduction of this scheme 27 households had been successfully assisted.

·         Continued assistance was offered to individuals who found themselves sleeping rough after losing their accommodation and the Rough Sleeper Outreach Officer had made great strides in ensuring that those who were on the streets were assisted before they reached a point where they were entrenched.

·         By creating a successful partnership approach and through the established Rough Sleeper Task and Targeting Group a joint approach was taken with clear pathways working closely with the voluntary sector and faith groups, the police, substance misuse agencies and outreach workers.

The Development of the Homelessness Strategy 2013 – 2018

·         The aims of the new strategy was to continue to build on the existing achievements and to invite all partners with an interest in housing to work together to prevent homelessness, increase access to accommodation and manage the challenges of Welfare Reform.

·         The development of the new strategy had enabled Peterborough City Council to commence a review to assess how effective they had been in tackling homelessness. The review would take in to consideration

v  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The purpose of this report was to present to the Committee the updated Common Housing Allocations Policy following a period of public consultation.

The following key points were highlighted:                            

·         A 12 week public consultation had run from 6 October 2012 until 30 December 2012.

·         A consultation questionnaire was sent to all applicants who had a live application on the Common Housing Register.

·         563 completed questionnaires had been completed and returned

·         As part of the changes to the document, Peterborough City Council intended to restrict entry to the register to households who had sufficient financial resources to resolve their own housing situation

·         267 questionnaires responded that the household income limit of £60,000 was too high therefore, it was proposed to lower the limit to £40,200 except where people were aged over 55

·         It was proposed to amend the current Bedroom Standards Policy to one bedroom for:

v      Every adult/couple

v      Any other adult aged 16 or over

v      Any two children of the same sex

v      Any two children regardless of sex under age 10

v      Any other child

·         Changes as a result of the Welfare Reform Act 2011 meant that any household assessed under these criteria who were deemed to be occupying social housing and were in receipt of housing benefit would have a reduction applied of:

v      14% if they were under occupying by one bedroom

v      25% if they were under occupying by two or more bedrooms

The Committee were asked to review the final draft of the Common Housing Register Allocations Policy along with the summary of responses to the consultation and if in agreement recommend it to Cabinet for onward presentation to Full Council for adoption.

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

• Members were concerned that housing offered to the armed forces would not be up to standard. The Housing Needs Manager informed members that a choice based system would still be operated therefore people had the right to express an interest in properties before making a decision, they could bid for up to three properties per week and could refuse up to three offers. The Strategic Housing Manager added that Social Housing within the city met the decent homes standards, within the private sector nobody would be placed in accommodation that had not been inspected first.
• Members queried part 4.7 of the report on page 62 and whether bullet point two was strict enough. Which read:

v      By having immediate family members who live in the area and have done for the last five years.

The Housing Needs Manager advised the Committee that the criteria within the Housing Allocations Policy was part of the Local Authority agreement that the Council had to work to as part of the homelessness legislation. There would be investigations made in to anybody who claimed that they had immediate family members in Peterborough with colleagues in Council Tax and Electoral Services to ensure that those family members had been resident in Peterborough for at least five years.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to take Key Decisions, 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 Notice of Intention to take Key Decisions and agreed that there were no items for further consideration.

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme for 2012/13 and discussed possible items for inclusion.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2012/13.

6 March 2013.

The Governance Officer advised the Committee that the date for the next meeting would be changed due to a clash of meetings; this would be emailed around to the Committee as soon as it had been decided.