Agenda item

Officers introduced the report and gave a short presentation attached to these minutes.

During the discussion, a member asked what happened when a parent and adult child had a Council tenancy and one of them died. Officers explained they would look at what the tenancy agreement said as there was usually provision for this; if there was not, then the situation would be dealt with as empathically as possible and consideration would be given to discretionary policies around succession. A member noted the policy stated a parent and child would not necessarily have a joint tenancy unless both were assessed as having a housing need under statute and asked if that meant succession in those circumstances was discretionary. Officers confirmed they acted within the law and the tenancy agreement, so if there was not scope for this within the agreement they would look at the succession policy which was currently being reviewed and which meant discretion could be applied in certain circumstances. A member cited an instance when a resident had to wait for a couple of months before being informed whether a succession process could take place and asked if there was a way of easing the situation given the situation was already very stressful. Officers explained the tenancy would need to be formally ended via a notice to quit which had a duration of four weeks and in that period staff should be in contact with the occupier; a licence to occupy could be issued so the surviving tenant knew they could remain in the property until a decision was made about succession. Sometimes the Council needed to do right-sizing depending on the accommodation and the needs of the resident. It was recognised the process was a legal one and serving notice to quit could appear as though eviction was imminent but the tenancy needed to be ended in order to move forward.

A member noted the equality impact assessment stated there was a neutral impact on all groups with protected characteristics. Officers accepted the point and said they had struggled to find hard evidence to make a positive or negative assessment about this. The member asked about the diversity of Council tenants compared with residents of the borough as a whole; officers responded that it was intended to carry out work on this during the year as the data on tenancies was not as comprehensive as it could be in terms of disability for example.

A member commented that the Council did not use demoted tenancies and asked if it had been agreed there were better ways of dealing with antisocial behaviour (ASB). Officers said the Council had a range of tools when dealing with ASB that was caused by or affected its tenants including injunctions or community protection notices and ultimately could repossess the property. Some housing providers used introductory and demoted tenancies but the Council wanted tenants to have security of tenure (lifetime secure tenancies) and would use its enforcement powers when necessary. 

RESOLVED

(a)         Cabinet Housing Panel recommended to Cabinet the introduction of the Tenancy Policy and Tenancy Strategy; and

(b)         Requested that Cabinet recommend approval of the Policy and Strategy to Full Council.