Minutes:
“More private landlords are refusing to take residents who are supported by benefits and the rise in Welwyn Hatfield residents in temporary accommodation (including the use of bed and breakfast for the first time) has resulted in our staff carrying case loads of 2.5 times what they should be responsible for. Would the Portfolio Holder or Leader please inform the Council as to whether they have written to the appropriate Secretary of State to raise concerns at the effects that this dire situation has on our residents and staff?”
Answer
The question was answered by Councillor T.Kingsbury (Deputy Leader):-
“Thank you for raising this important issue. As members will be aware the Homeless Reduction Act, a new piece of legislation which enjoyed cross party parliamentary support, was introduced on 1 April 2018. This Act – which aims to help prevent homelessness at an earlier stage, introduces new duties for the council, in terms of the help and advice that must be provided to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
Our housing needs team was restructured in preparation for this Act and additional resources have been made available. However we do have some vacancies in the team, as well as new members of staff who are not yet carrying full caseloads, which has meant that staff presently have higher caseloads than the ideal.
Processes have been streamlined to improve efficiency and to focus our energies on prevention of homelessness. Whilst caseloads are presently higher than we would like, this is in part a result of adapting to the new legislation and the fact we have staff vacancies. Once all posts are filled, the average caseload should reduce. However we are monitoring this closely, providing staff with appropriate support and, if required, additional resources will be invested in this area.
Our main aim is to increase the supply of affordable housing and we have now delivered more than 200 affordable homes via our Affordable Housing Programme, this is in addition to new affordable homes provided via the planning system. We have recently commissioned a company to review our Housing Revenue Account land and assets to identify further opportunities to deliver more affordable homes.
We are also investing in a number of initiatives to increase our supply of local temporary accommodation – including the proposed Night Shelter, making use of empty properties that are awaiting redevelopment, extending our open market purchase programme and introduction of a private sector leasing scheme
In May this year, the council supported representations made to the Secretary of State (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) via Grant Shapps MP, about homelessness and the impact on local families. Concerns were raised at that time about the gap between Local Housing Allowance and local rental market levels, which makes the private rented sector difficult to access for families who are in receipt of benefit;
The government minister confirmed that to help the council tackle homelessness locally, the flexible homeless support grant, which has been made available in 2017/18 and 2018/19 is to be paid for a third year in 2019/20. This is great news as we will receive just over £280K. This grant has so far helped fund our Housing First project, which provides an outreach and advice service for people who are rough sleeping, as well as a shared house, with specialist support; enhanced our ‘spend to save’ fund, which enables us to prevent homelessness and, as recently agreed by Cabinet, invest in the proposed Night Shelter. We also plan to use these funds to improve access to the private rented sector via a private sector leasing scheme, which is currently being developed.”
Councillor Chesterman asked in a supplementary question if despite all the prevention work those families in temporary accommodation with children were given much hope as temporary accommodation was not normally suitable for them.
In response, the Deputy Leader said that he would be happy for the Council to write to the Minister.