Agenda item

To receive a report of the Service Director (Resident and Neighbourhood).

Members were shown a presentation which is attached to these minutes. The strategy and policy were revisions of the existing version and the changes were track changed in the agenda pack. The strategy set out the Council’s commitment to providing high quality housing, ensuring thriving neighbourhoods and sustainable communities, and the approach of the Council in this area towards tenancies as well as the expected approaches of social housing providers. Under the Localism Act, the Council was required to consult with registered providers, social landlords and others who were required by law to have regard to the Council’s tenancy strategy in terms of how they set their tenancies and their terms and conditions. If CHP was to unanimously agree the draft strategy and policy and the Executive Member for Housing approved the start of a consultation, it was intended that there would be a four week public consultation; there would also be an informal consultation with private landlords and agents through the accreditation scheme although this was not required by law.

The tenancy strategy covered the types of tenancies that were available. It was the Councils aim to provide secure lifetime tenancies (one of the four key objectives of the strategy) and although there were occasions when this was not possible eg when it needed to make temporary arrangements, fixed term tenancies were no longer offered. The Council wanted to ensure tenants understood their responsibilities and how to sustain their tenancies; additionally, if their tenancy was to end, they should be signposted towards services if they were potentially homeless.

The policy was more focused on the Council and set out arrangements for tenancy management including how tenancy sustainment was supported, tackling tenancy fraud and how the Council managed discretionary succession rights.

Members commented as follows:

-        There was a query about discretionary succession rights; a member reflected that it was distressing when a parent died which would be compounded by the potential loss of one’s home and asked how such residents would be supported. Officers responded that each case would be looked at individually with regard to their personal circumstances and cases would be looked at by the Exceptional Circumstances panel if necessary. There were legal requirements for succession and a property could only be succeeded once but the circumstances of the living resident would be taken into account.

-        A member reflected on the importance of the strategy and policy and asked whether they would come back to CHP for review. Officers explained there would be a consultation over the next four weeks and would probably go to Cabinet for approval; if that was the case, an update would be provided to CHP.

-        A member commented positively on the section about demoted tenancies and asked if it was possible for housing associations to follow the Council’s lead in not demoting tenancies. Officers acknowledged that while the strategy set out the Council’s expectations, there were limitations in what it could ask of other providers. However the Council tried to encourage and engage with registered providers to offer tenants the best they could, and officers cited work between the housing allocations team and providers.

-        There was a query about how this policy and strategy linked with tenants’ responsibilities. Officers said tenancy agreements were being revised and referenced CHP’s recent consideration of the pets policy. Tenancy agreements set out the responsibilities of both the Council as a landlord and tenants; this was a work in progress and would be considered by CHP. The member suggested the policy make reference to the tenancy agreement and officers agreed that it would.

-        It was felt it would be helpful to include a link to the allocations policy and officers agreed this would be done. 

-        A member noted that the government this week had announced a consultation on reforms to social housing allocations and wondered how this would impact the work.  Officers were not yet sure of the detail and did not feel this work would impact significantly on the policy. 

-        A member asked how many registered housing providers there were in the borough and officers agreed to find this out.

RESOLVED

CHP:

a)    Considered and noted the draft tenancy policy and draft tenancy strategy; and

b)    Agreed that the Executive Member for Housing approve commencement of the public consultation in accordance with their delegated authority.