Agenda item

Resolved: the committee noted the report.

Rachel Dunn (Service Group Manager - Partnerships and Service Improvement) introduced the item and delivered a presentation providing a background to the consultation and proposed changes.

1.1  The council’s housing allocation’s policy has been reviewed and is currently being consulted on. The major changes being proposed include: two new rehousing reasons to be added to priority band 2 in a new banding structure (homelessness with urgent need, and overcrowded by 3 bedrooms); the introduction of a new band 4 for overcrowded by 1 bedrooms (48% of the register); to increase overall lets; reduce the number of refusals; and increase the number of bids per week.

1.2  So far the consultation has received 446 responses: 26% of these are from people currently living in temporary accommodation and 33% from people currently living in social housing.

1.3  Key consultation activity to date has included messaging on the council website; emailing housing register applicants; texting temporary accommodation and hostel residents; and working with other organisations to try to hear from hard-to-reach groups.

1.4  Due to the challenges of consulting during the Covid-19 pandemic the consultation period has now been extended by 4 weeks in order to proactively work with community organisation and facilitate specific sessions and focus groups with hard-to-reach groups.

1.5  The committee asked about how the council is specifically targeting young people and other hard-to-reach groups and what platforms they are using to do this?

1.6  The council has been advertising and promoting the consultation in various forums. The council would have carried out more events to reach hard-to-reach groups if it hadn’t been for the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the consultation has been extended for this purpose and the council has been working with community groups to identify those who might not be able to engage online.

1.7  The committee also queried how suitable offers are determined; whether mutual aid groups and similar organisations had been engaged with; what is being done to meet the housing need for larger 4 and 5 bedroom homes; what is being done to reduce the number of unsuitable offers; how income can be taken into account in the allocation process; and how people’s expectations are being managed about the availability of and waiting times for social housing.

1.8  Officers provided an explanation of how suitable offers are determined. It was confirmed that more than 100 community organisations had been engaged with and that officers will look into engaging with mutual aid groups too. Officers confirmed that the council would purchase larger 4 and 5 bedroom properties if they were available and affordable. It was noted that the council is also building some larger homes itself.

1.9  It was also noted that the council is intending to manage the expectations of people on the housing register by providing information about the realistic waiting times and is also looking to develop a calculator tool to help people understand where they are in the waiting list.

The committee agreed at 21:15 to suspend the relevant standing order to allow the committee to finish the business on the agenda.

1.10      The committee noted that if agreed the proposals would mean that around half of the people on the housing list would be demoted by one band. The committee expressed concern about this and suggested that adopting statutory overcrowding would mean that the council would have deeper understanding of need when allocating this scarce resource. It was noted that other London local authorities have adopted statutory overcrowding.

1.11      The committee also noted that adult children are not included when assessing overcrowding and queried what would happen if the child of a family in the overcrowded by 3 bedroom category became an adult while they were on the waiting list, and whether this would then mean that the family would be re-categorised as overcrowded by 2 bedrooms and be demoted a band?

1.12      The committee also queried whether the proposal for smart lettings would be restricted to one other person in the chain or whether longer chains would be possible where this would solve more housing need?

1.13      Officers noted the committee’s comments on statutory overcrowding; agreed to come back with more information about what would happen in the situation where a child in an overcrowded household becomes an adult; and confirmed that provision for longer chains of lettings is still included in the allocations scheme.

Resolved: the committee noted the report.