Agenda item

In May 2016, following a far reaching and extensive review, the Housing (Demand, Supply and Affordability) Task Group made a number of recommendations to help manage demand and improve the supply and affordability of housing in Medway.  The Task group considered three key issues of enquiry and heard evidence from a number of sources and those working in the field.

This report and attached action plan (Appendix 1) summarises progress against each recommendation.

There are significant personal well-being issues for residents connected with both the quality and availability of housing; for health care organisations in terms of discharging patients to suitable accommodation; and issues for staff in a number of local organisations being able to access affordable housing. Board Member comment and support is sought.

Discussion

The Head of Planning and the Head of Strategic Housing introduced an update on the progress made in relation to the recommendations made by the Housing (Demand, Supply and Affordability) Task Group in May 2016. The key points made by officers were as follows:

·         It was recognised that through the Local Plan, the Council needed to comply with the objectively assessed needs of different groups of people. Without this there was likely to be increased overcrowding.

·         There were between 6,000 and 7,000 planning applications for new homes in Medway that had been granted where construction had not yet taken place. There was a need to work with developers to address this.

·         The Government’s Housing White Paper had proposed reducing the lifespan of planning applications and allowing the success of developers in implementing previous approvals to be taken into consideration when future applications were considered. The possibility of compulsory purchases by local authorities of sites that were not being developed was also proposed.

·         The White Paper also set out funding for accelerated construction of housing. The Council had submitted an expression of interest for this funding.

·         The Council was working with developers to look at how the planning pre-application stage could be enhanced.

·         Work was being undertaken to upskill the local workforce to increase the amount of construction that could take place. Mid Kent College and Medway University Technical College were supporting this work. A Kent and Medway Protocol had been developed.

·         The Homebond scheme was supporting 125 applicants to access the private sector rental market each year. There was scope to develop this further, with work taking place with the Landlords’ Forum to develop the scheme.

·         The Council’s Housing Allocation Policy prioritised enabling social housing tenants living in a house larger than they needed to move to a smaller property.

·         Advice was provided to local people in relation to affordable home ownership.

·         60% of new housing in the UK was constructed by ten firms. There was a need to encourage more small and medium size builders to develop in Medway as large builders could not meet all local house building needs.

·         A benchmarking exercise had been undertaken with Kent to look at private sector rented standards. This had established that Medway had mid-range staffing levels per 1,000 tenancies in the private sector compared to other areas.

The Board raised a number of points and questions as follows:

Accommodation for looked after children - A Member highlighted that there was no reference to children or young people in the papers presented to the Board. He suggested that better collaboration was required between housing and children’s services, partly to reduce the need for people to be housed in relatively high cost private sector accommodation. Nationally, there had been a failure to ensure appropriate accommodation for looked after children and care leavers.

Another Member, who was Chairman of the Medway Property Board and Special Housing Projects Board said that work was being undertaken to address these concerns, with feedback received from looked after children suggesting that the standard of accommodation offered to them was sub-standard.

Officers acknowledged that stronger working was required between housing and children’s services. There were opportunities to work with developers and within the Council to ensure that the housing provided met local needs of distinct groups, such as young people or those with learning disabilities.

It was suggested that the Board should be provided an update on looked after children. It was clarified that this should be a separate item from the Corporate Parenting Board Annual report that was due to be presented to the April meeting of the Board.

House Building – A Member advised that there had previously been funding available from the Housing Revenue Account to deliver new builds, with around 50 such constructions having taken place in the previous two to three years. This funding was no longer available due to a requirement for the Council to reduce rents by 1% per year. The possibility of the Council forming a property and building company to build houses was being investigated.

Opportunities for the development of underutilised sites owned by the Council were being investigated, including the potential for development of underused car parks. The provision of community facilities and health facilities to support house building was also being considered. The Council looked to take action where sites that it was the freeholder of became vacant. One example of this was the closure of Tesco in Chatham. The Council had found a new tenant for the site. Pod accommodation was being considered as a way to meet some of Medway’s housing needs. The Council had also purchased some properties in order to provide temporary accommodation.

Report Context – The Clinical Chair of Medway NHS Clinical Commissioning Group said that it would have been useful for the health context to have been included in the report presented. The Head of Planning advised that the purpose of the report provided was to update the Board on implementation of the recommendations of the Housing Task Group, which was the reason for the report being in the format provided.

Vacant Property – A Member said that there was some property in Medway that had been vacant for a long period where no action appeared to have been taken. The Member questioned what was being done to address this. Officers advised that provisions in the Housing White Paper targeted this. Local authorities would be permitted to increase planning fees by up to 20% on condition that these fees were used to bring empty properties back into use. It was anticipated that a report would be presented to Council by May 2017 with a view to increasing the fees. This income would then be used for a Derelict Buildings Officer.

Interim Director of Public Health comments – The Interim Director said that the provision of good quality housing was important in order to improve health and wellbeing. The availability of appropriate housing could help patients to leave hospital sooner where there was no medical need for them to remain. Housing also needed to be affordable for the key workers providing services. The organisations represented on the Health and Wellbeing Board had a role to play in lobbying and raising awareness to support increasing the amount of appropriate housing in Medway.

Decision

The Board:

i)  Commented on the report in the context of both its Members’ clients/patients and their current and future staff and provided Individual organisational commitment to support the report’s recommendations.

ii)  Agreed that an update on Looked After Children be added to the  Board’s Work Programme.