Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Community Services will attend the meeting in order to be held to account for matters within the remit of this committee.  

Discussion:

The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Community Services, Councillor Doe, addressed the committee outlining the main achievements within his portfolio which included:

Community Services

·        Eastgate House;  £1.3 million funding had been secured from the heritage Lottery Fund, together with further funding already secured and work would begin next summer

·        Dickens Chalet:  £50,000 of funding had been secured

·        Rochester Castle:  an environmental monitoring programme had been established in the Keep to determine the best approach for its preservation in the future. There were development proposals for two mural towers, educational interpretation units and catering use. Funding had also been secured for external lighting of the castle

·        Upnor Castle:  an EU funded interpretation programme had been completed with interactive use for young people. It had been discovered that the Barrack Block was the second oldest in the country and it was proposed to include this as part of the attraction

·        Guildhall Museum:  “Opening the Doors” project had been very successful and visitor numbers had increased by 4,000 in 2012

·        Sports:  Pre-Olympic training camps had been held at Medway Park. It had also hosted the British Transplant Games, which had been the most successful ever held. £20,000 sponsorship had been secured from a local company towards the Medway Sporting Academy which coaches young athletes

·        Stirling Centre:  agreement had been reached with the Kings School in Rochester to invest £500,000 in improvements and run the administration of the centre. The school would use the centre during the daytime and the public have use of it in the evening

·        Deangate Golf Club:  a new driving range had been installed, together with a new Par 3 Academy Course

·        Greenspaces:  seven play areas had been improved and a new play area built in Hoo. Satisfaction with play areas had risen by 5% to 90% in total

·        Allotments:  improvements had been made to sheds and security

·        Volunteers:  23 Friends Groups had contributed a total of 11,000 voluntary hours towards a wide variety of community projects

·        Events:  two highly successful Dickens Festivals had been held in 2012 and the council had run a Christmas market where trade had been very good. A River festival had been held as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, which had also been well attended and there was a lot of interest to hold another River Festival in 2013. 75,000 had attended the Olympic Torch Relay and 3,000 residents had taken part in the ‘Medway Mile’

·        Libraries:  funding had been secured for Chatham and Gillingham libraries to evolve into community hubs and become the centre of activities for the local community with the ability to hold small events. 3,244 children had taken part in the Summer Reading Challenge

·        Theatres and Arts:  the FUSE Festival was now the largest contemporary festival sponsored by the Arts Council in the south east of England. The concerts at Rochester Castle had again been successful. 6,500 people had attended the Will Adams Festival and 100,000 people had visited the new Rochester Art Gallery

·        Tourism:  an outline strategy had been developed for Medway and the number of visitors had already increased. The council had worked on a pilot project with ‘Visit Kent’ and developed a draft Destination Management Plan. A “What’s On” brochure had been published as part of the Medway Matters newsletter and in August 2012 more people had visited Medway than ever before.

Housing

·        Strategic Housing: 108 affordable homes had been completed and the council was on track to meet the 204 target to be completed by the end of the financial year. However, homelessness had risen by over 30% but applications were generally still decided within 28 working days

·        Empty homes:  1.3% of housing in Medway had been empty long-term, compared to a target of 1.6%. 63 empty properties had been brought back into use by the end of September 2012

·        Temporary Accommodation:  the numbers of people living in temporary accommodation had risen by 7% (compared with 200% increase elsewhere). This was as a result of the hard work of the Housing Solutions team working with housing providers to help minimise the expected increase

·        Home Choice:  92% of people on the housing list bid using the council’s on-line service

·        Extra Care:  the first scheme had been completed at Victory Pier in Gillingham and two more schemes were on-track for completion and one more due on site by the end of the year, which would improve the housing situation for 157 vulnerable elderly people

·        Disabled Facility Grant:  the budget was fully committed and applications were approved within the six month deadline

·        Council housing:  the number of void properties had reduced from 19 days last year to 14 days this year. Rent loss whilst properties remained empty stood at 0.48% and rent arrears were down, at a time when they were expected to increase

·        Repairs:  99% of urgent repairs and 98% of routine repairs were dealt with on time

·        Direct Debit Scheme:  this scheme for paying rent via direct debit had been launched in 2012.

A Member asked the Portfolio Holder what intentions he had for the new flexibility (headroom) within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the re-use of assets in order to close the gap between 204 completions of new housing and the 16,000 families waiting for accommodation. Councillor Doe responded that the number of people on the waiting list was mis-leading and the number of people within Band A and B was much lower. He also advised that the additional finance available (headroom) in the HRA was a one-off and his first priority for this funding would be to improve the council’s current sheltered schemes to modern standards. With the remainder of the money, he wanted to produce more housing but for this to be linked to the regeneration of the Luton area of Chatham.

With regard to the Housing Strategy, the Portfolio Holder was asked why it did not recognise that the council’s aim was for all residents to have the right to a decent home at a fair rent. Councillor Doe replied that ideally the strategy would state this. Anyone who could make their own housing arrangements should do so, with help from the council.

A Member asked about the future of the Strood library community hub. Councillor Doe advised that it had previously been agreed to relocate it as part of a Tesco development in Strood. Since then, Tesco had reviewed its national strategy and the council awaited the outcome of that review.

A Member asked if there were any plans to update the athletics ground at Deangate Golf Club. The Portfolio Holder advised that there was no funding available to achieve this at present. In the long-term, it was hoped that funding received from the Lodge Hill development could be used to develop the leisure facilities in that area.

The Portfolio Holder was asked about people who came onto the Home Choice system due to eviction for anti-social behaviour elsewhere and whether the council was notified of this before re-housing them. Councillor Doe advised that Housing Associations could inform the council of this but were not obliged to do so. The council would have to carefully decide where to place them and the Housing Manager would need to monitor the situation very closely.

A Member spoke about the housing crisis due to face Local Authorities due to the forthcoming reduction to housing and other benefits. He advised that people would be forced to downsize due to their lower income and asked if the council had plans for this, as properties had previously been disposed of and money had not been spent on re-furbishing the sheltered units. He also asked about the control of rents in the private sector. Councillor Doe advised that he recognised the pressures that were to come for people in receipt of benefits and there were plans to refurbish up to three sheltered units. He could not guarantee the required funding would be available for additional smaller units but he assured the committee that he would keep trying to secure additional funding when possible.

Decision:

The committee thanked Councillor Doe for attending the meeting and the information and answers he had provided.