Council and councillors

To receive Report No. 40/2017 from the Director for Places (Development and Economy)

Report No. 40/2017 was received from the Director for Places.

The Portfolio Holder for Growth, Trading Resources and Resources (except Finance) Mr Hemsley, introduced the report the purpose of which was to consider the draft Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2017-22 as part of the consultation process.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

      i.        There were around 40 people per year registered as homeless in Rutland, these people would have become homeless for a variety of reasons and would have been accepted as homeless subject to satisfying specific criteria.  These people were placed in temporary accommodation, whilst the authority looked for permanent residence and should be distinguished from rough sleepers;

    ii.        The cost for staffing the operational Housing Service was approximately £100,000 and there were some accommodation costs for temporary accommodation, in Bed and Breakfast for example, of £15,000 per year;

   iii.        There was some differences between the figures quoted for new homes targets in this strategy, between the short term figures quoted from the Corporate Plan and the long term average to 2036 proposed in the most recent consultation on the Local Plan. It was explained that the two documents referred to covered different time periods and that construction rates would vary over time, but would average to out to be roughly the same over the Local Plan period;

   iv.         There are occasions where rough sleepers move through the County and the Council can be made aware these quite quickly, there have been occasions where RCC has been approached and can offer support and access to services.  The law regarding support for these people was about to change and further support may need to be offered where this was sought.  The Bridge Project also offered support for rough sleepers;

    v.        Mr Faircliffe, Housing Strategy and Enabling Officer, confirmed that in some cases it was possible for a person in shared ownership housing to increase their share of the property and even buy outright, but in villages this was usually limited by planning / regulatory restrictions.  Where a shared ownership house was sold outright it would usually have benefited several previous owners of the property and the housing association would get the benefit of the release of equity to invest in further affordable housing;

   vi.        Members requested some further information in the strategy regarding provision for Travellers;

  vii.        The Director for Places (Development and Economy), Mr Phillipson, confirmed that RCC had some funding to incentivise developers to build affordable housing and to make it more cost effective for social landlords to increase the level of these types of rental properties.  Economies of scale and value for money are achieved through working with developers and social landlords, which would be difficult for the Council to achieve should they wish to build their own affordable housing, this was however, kept under review and should a viable opportunity arise it would be looked into;

viii.        Any funding provided for rental properties to meet affordable housing demand would be received back should the property be sold at a later date, there was an option to convert shared ownership properties into full rented properties, but this was still considered affordable housing;

   ix.        There was a shortage of one-bedroom properties; and

    x.        The Self-Build and Custom House Building Register had only recently been established following a recent change in legislation, being on the list did not provide entitlement for a plot, it merely allowed for comparison and evaluation of plots becoming available.  The wording in the strategy would be amended to reflect that; and

   xi.        There was work ongoing regarding “work/live” units as part of the work on the Local Plan.

AGREED:

That the Panel CONSIDERED the draft Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2017-22 at Appendix A and comments would be reported to Cabinet as appropriate.

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Mr J Faircliffe left the meeting and did not return.

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