Agenda item

The Director, Regeneration, Community and Culture introduced this report which asked Members to consider the final report of the in-depth review into the demand, supply and affordability of housing in Medway. The Committee was recommended to consider the findings and recommendations of the Task Group and forward any comments to the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Director thanked the Members of the Task Group for the report and the positive way the Group had worked on a cross party basis to deliver recommendations which would have a significant impact on communities in Medway. The issues the Task Group had raised showed that the housing problems in Medway were also very much a feature in the region and nationally.

A Member of the Task Group commended the report and the recommendations to the Committee and noted the positive, collegiate way in which the Group had worked in analysing the issues and evidence and formulating workable recommendations, which had been agreed unanimously by the Task Group. He thanked his fellow Task Group Members, the witnesses who had given up their time to speak to the Task Group and the support provided from the officers involved.

The Chairman of the Task Group was invited to speak and also commended the report to the Committee and thanked the Members and officers involved.

Members welcomed the report and made the following comments:

Recommendation 2 - In response to a question about the likelihood of the Government agreeing to a local tax on undeveloped (land banked) land, officers advised that it was not possible to say at this point whether this proposal would be accepted by the Government.

Recommendation 3 - Officers clarified that effectively the Task Group were recommending that the ability for developers to commission services such as ecology studies at the pre-application stage in order to allow schemes to start on site without further delay should happen more often given its effectiveness when it had been used to date.

Recommendation 6 - A Member asked how the reluctance of some landlords to accept Home bonds could be overcome and queried why the Task Group had not spoken to a lettings agency. Officers replied that Home bonds worked for some people and the intention was to review the scheme. One possibility was to combine training for tenants in personal finance etc. with the scheme. The Group had met with the National Landlords Association whose membership included both lettings agents and landlords.

A Member asked to what extent the Group had spoken to the voluntary sector. In reply, a Member commented that the Group had spoken to Citizens Advice Medway and had also invited Shelter but had been unable to secure a representative.

Referring to the private rental sector, a Member asked whether the Council was looking at mechanisms to maintain the quality of homes in the sector including improving the exterior of properties where necessary. Whether selective licensing would be introduced was also queried. Officers replied that the Council had previously looked at selective licensing for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), which were much more prevalent in other areas compared to Medway. Those larger properties which were HMOs but did not need to be licensed were risk assessed and inspected. At present it was not felt that selective licensing would add anything to the measures currently employed by the Council. There were proposals about further regulation and licencing in respect of private sector accommodation in the Housing and Planning Bill which officers would be monitoring The standards the Council enforced against in the private rented sector were set down in legislation and related to the impact of accommodation on a person’s health. The aesthetic appearance of a property was not a matter for the Council under its housing powers and a property which looked poorly maintained from the exterior did not necessarily mean that the interior standards were below the acceptable levels set down. Recommendation 11 recognised the importance of these issues.

A Member referred to the issue of the affordability of starter homes and asked if the Council was proposing to increase the density of these in urban areas. Officers responded that starter homes would be dealt with as part of the Local Plan and starter homes would be required in all significant developments, including in rural areas.  In addition, the Council was looking to increase the density of starter homes, where appropriate, through the Local Plan.