Agenda item

The Housing Needs Manager introduced the report which provided the Committee with the Draft Homelessness Review and Draft Homelessness Strategy 2013-2018.  This was being presented to the Committee for final sign off before being presented to Cabinet and Full Council for adoption.  Also in attendance was the Assistant Housing Needs Manager and Strategic Housing Manager.  The Draft Homelessness Strategy had previously been presented to the Committee at its meeting on 7 March 2013 for comment.  The proposed draft Strategy took the form of an action plan which would be monitored on a quarterly basis throughout the life of the plan.  There were four strategic aims of the strategy:

·         Strategic Aim 1 – Preventing and relieving homelessness through a robust partnership approach

·         Strategic Aim 2 - Increasing access to safe, warm, healthy and affordable accommodation

·         Strategic Aim 3 – Reduce and prevent rough sleeping

·         Strategic Aim 4 – Promoting settled lifestyles and sustainable communities

The committee was asked to:

1.      Note the findings of the Homelessness Review

2.      Comment on and agree on the strategic objectives set out in the Homelessness Strategy 2013 – 2018 and approve the Draft Homelessness Strategy

3.      Approve the draft strategy to be taken forward to Cabinet and Full Council for adoption 

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Members were concerned that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea were actively seeking land for accommodation for their homeless population in Peterborough. The Executive Director of Operations informed Members that Peterborough City Council was not currently in negotiations with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and that there were no intentions to do so at this stage.

·         Was the Director aware of any other Authorities wanting to acquire land in Peterborough to facilitate the type of arrangements that had recently been detailed in the Press?  The Executive Director of Operations was unaware of any other Authorities having approached Peterborough City Council to acquire land.  Members were advised that any other Authority would be entitled to buy land and build houses in Peterborough if they so wished.

·         Were officers aware of any residents who have come from London and taken up residence in the private rented sector in Peterborough?  The  Housing Needs Manager informed Members that following the introduction of the Localism Act in 2011 there were new powers handed down to Authorities to discharge their homelessness duties by making an offer of suitable accommodation within the private sector.  This gave Local Authorities freedom to procure accommodation outside of their district.  There were many London Boroughs who had looked for accommodation across the country.  Local Authorities were free to contact private letting agents across the country.

·         Members were concerned that people coming from London and taking up accommodation in the private sector would impact on the availability of accommodation for Peterborough residents.  Was this being monitored?  Members were advised that it was not a requirement for London Boroughs to inform Peterborough City Council when they placed people with private landlords. This would therefore be difficult to monitor.

·         What was the ‘Jam Jar’ account?   Members were advised that the ‘Jam Jar’ account had been set up with the Credit Union and was an account that helped people manage their money post receipt of Universal Credit.  Money would go into the account and be sectioned off in to different ‘Jam Jars’ so that it could not be spent and only utilised for essential costs such as rent, electricity, heating or food. Its purpose was to help people who had not previously  had experience in managing their money or who currently had difficulty in managing their money.

·         How many people have applied for the discretionary housing payment, how many people have been accepted and how long does it take to make a decision after application?  Members were advised that it was managed by the Serco Client Team and not within the Housing Team.  The Officer advised the he would find out and report back to Members.

·         The information in the report gave the total number of acceptances and number of households in temporary accommodation per 1000 by Local Authority and Peterborough compared to Norwich, Ipswich and Cambridge.  Why was Peterborough compared to these Authorities?  Members were advised that  CIPFA Statistics were used and those authorities were originally part of the Best Value cohort group that Peterborough were placed within which was based on similar populations and similar make up.  Peterborough had been part of this cohort group for the last ten years.

·         What does the term ‘those who hit the streets’ mean?  Members were advised that it was a technical term referring to people who were unable to secure accommodation either rented or with family and found themselves with nowhere to stay so ‘hit’ the streets.

·         Members noted that the report mentioned that “the multi-agency Homelessness Strategy Steering Group has continued to meet and will be key to the development of the new draft Homelessness Strategy”.  Members felt that the word “will be key” was misleading and sought clarity that the multi-agency Homelessness Strategy Steering Group had been key.  The Housing Needs Manager advised that he would change the wording to provide clarify that the Steering Group had been key to the development of the new draft Homelessness Strategy.

·         Members sought clarification as to why under the section of the report referring to Levels of Housing Need there was statistical data which referred to single persons being unable to afford market prices.  Members were advised that the reason for the data on single people had been included was because a study had been commissioned by partnering neighbouring local authorities into the local levels of housing needs particularly looking at single people and the affordability within the region.

·         Members were concerned that the Homelessness Strategy provided a bleak picture and wanted to know if there were any positive areas of work that could be included and how Peterborough compared to other Authorities.  The Housing Needs Manager advised that he could include within the report more comparative data with neighbouring authorities to highlight how well Peterborough was doing in areas of work to lower the number of  homelessness presentations.  Other areas of work to  include would be the achievements with regard to reducing the number of rough sleepers across the city, the reduction in front desk waiting times and the changes to improve access to the service.

·         Officers were asked if they could identify any positives that had come out of the benefit reform around homelessness.  Members were advised that it was difficult to find positives when households were being squeezed.  Some positives were that accommodation that was being under used would become available.  This would however mean that demand for one and two bedroom properties would increase.  The full impact of the benefit cap had not yet been seen.

·         The Chairman commented that the report had not identified what problems had arisen from the delays in processing housing benefit and how the problems were being resolved.  The Chairman informed the Committee that he had therefore contacted the Housing Benefits team to ask what was being done.  The Chairman had received a response advising of the types of issues that had arisen and how they were being resolved.  The Chairman sought clarification from the Officers present if they thought the interventions that the Benefits Team had in place were acceptable.  The Chairman also asked if further improvement was required, whether the time that people were waiting was acceptable and what needed to be done over the next few years to improve performance.  The Housing Needs Manager advised Members that the relationship with the Housing Benefits Team was very good.   Urgent issues referred to the Housing Benefits Team were generally dealt with immediately and an outcome provided on the same day.  Due to the large number of applications that were now being received by the Housing Benefits Team there was generally a 6 to 8 week lead time on the assessment of an application. The major difficulty was that a lot of private landlords in the city could not afford to wait the 6 to 8 weeks and could not afford to wait to have the rent paid in arrears. This often deterred private landlords from accepting people on housing benefit.  The Housing Team and Serco were working together to improve the assessment time and on line applications were being introduced.

·         The Chairman provided the Committee with a summary of the numbers of outstanding new claims highlighting that 249 were over 28 days old.

·         Were the numbers of people being placed in bed and breakfast increasing?  The Executive Director of Operations informed Members that people being placed into bed and breakfast accommodation had increased which had been an impact of not being able to find the appropriate accommodation.  The current spend on bed and breakfast accommodation was approximately £300K a year and every effort was being made to reduce this.

·         Members sought clarification on people living in rural areas being able to have first choice of social housing within the area they lived in.  The Housing Needs Managers advised that social housing was a scarce resource and had to be provided to the people with the most urgent housing need.

RECOMMENDATION

The Committee:

1. Note the findings of the Homelessness Review;
2. Agree with the strategic objectives set out in the Homelessness Strategy 2013 – 2018.
3. Approve the Draft Homelessness Strategy and recommends it to Cabinet and Full Council for adoption.
4. The Committee  recommends that the covering report be redrafted to include the following amendments prior to presentation to Cabinet:

(i)                  Change the wording in the report to provide clarity that the Steering Group had been key to the development of the new draft Homelessness Strategy.

(ii)                Include in the report additional data  with regard to:

a.      local levels of housing needs and affordability for families within the region for comparison.

b.      comparative data regarding neighbouring authorities and homelessness presentations compared to Peterborough

(iii)               Include  achievements such as the  reduction in the number of  rough sleepers across the city which has been  a nationally recognised piece of work, reduction in front desk waiting times and changes that have improved access to the service.

ACTIONS AGREED

1.      The Committee requested that the Executive Director of Operations notify the Committee when he becomes aware of any other Local Authorities making enquiries to Peterborough City Council with regard to acquiring land for the purposes of building houses.

2.      The Committee requested that the Housing Needs Manager provide the Committee with the following information:

(i)                  To obtain from Serco the number of people who have applied for the discretionary housing payment, how many people have been accepted and how long it takes to make a decision after application.