Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Housing

RESOLVED THAT

1.    The relocation of the Housing Option Service from Cheltenham First Stop, High Street to the Municipal Offices be approved.

2.    Authority be delegated to the Lead Commissioner – Housing Services, in consultation with Cabinet Member – Housing to approve any further changes to these proposals, should this become necessary in order to meet future customer requirements.

3.    It be noted that the lease to CBH will be granted at a peppercorn rent.

The Cabinet Member Housing introduced the report and explained that CBH took over the management of the council’s Housing Options Service in December 2013, following approval by Cabinet in June 2013 to transfer the service from the council to CBH. Throughout this period the Housing Options Service had been delivered from Cheltenham First Stop on the High Street. Following the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in April 2018, Additional Burdens Funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and local Government (MHCLG) had been used to provide additional staffing within the Housing Options Team to support the requirement to provide additional duties/services to households who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. This increase in staff, in combination with an estimated increase in the number of households likely to present to the Housing Options Service in housing need, means that it is now necessary to move this service to larger, more suitable accommodation. The proposed move to the municipal officers would support these requirements, by better meeting the team’s back office needs, whilst also providing a larger reception area and more interview room space to households in housing need.

The Cabinet Member wished to pay tribute to the work of the housing options team and explained how key its partnership with One Stop and CCP was.

In response to a question the Cabinet Member confirmed that whilst the details were being finalised this move meant that there was a single point of contact  in reception for the public for the housing options team.

RESOLVED THAT

1.    The relocation of the Housing Option Service from Cheltenham First Stop, High Street to the Municipal Offices be approved.

2.    Authority be delegated to the Lead Commissioner – Housing Services, in consultation with Cabinet Member – Housing to approve any further changes to these proposals, should this become necessary in order to meet future customer requirements.

3.    It be noted that the lease to CBH will be granted at a peppercorn rent.