Agenda item

Presentation from Martin Stacy, Housing and Communities Manager

(copy of presentation attached and draft housing and homelessness strategy, draft tenancy strategy and draft housing renewal policy documents attached for background information)

Martin Stacy, Housing and Communities Manager introduced the report which had been circulated with the agenda. The proposed Housing and Homelessness Strategy aimed to support both national and local priorities and emerging trends and had been influenced by the work of the member housing review group.  The vision was “to enable residents to access and maintain suitable, affordable accommodation within communities that are safer, stronger and healthier.” During his presentation, he highlighted that this was an opportunity for the committee to influence the strategy, identify any gaps or highlight any areas which needed more emphasis.

Members made a number of comments on the strategy as follows:

• The strategy referred to the potential savings of 35 tonnes of carbon dioxide per property by reusing empty homes. This figure should also be reflected in the Joint Core Strategy.
• The strategy needed to make a statement on the energy efficiency of new builds and the planning policy should be strengthened to support this to avoid fuel poverty in the future. The council should take a proactive stance on this and not wait for developers or government to lay down guidelines. This objective should also be reflected in the Joint Core Strategy.
• The strategy was a good starting point but needed to be more concise and include clear action plans.  The section on vacant properties and the strategy in the appendix needed to be more aggressive. There needed to be a clear process for empty property management orders so councillors could take the initiative for empty properties in their ward.
• A ‘missing’ was a strategy regarding children in care becoming adults and a co-ordinated approach was needed to provide them with the support and housing.
• The wording related to gypsies and travellers needs to recognize that there are various distinct groups which may have different needs.
• A member thought more clarity was needed on the figures for annual requirements for new housing and was concerned that the strategy relied on particular options in the Joint Core Strategy to supply those needs. They also suggested that CBH was not spending enough on new builds.
• A member referred to a recent press article which had stated there was 1500 unsafe private sector homes in Cheltenham which were not up to a basic standard. Tackling this issue must be a priority for any housing strategy.
  
  

In response to questions and comments from members the Housing and Communities Manager advised the following:

• An empty property in the private sector was identified from council tax data and priority was given to properties which had been empty for at least 12 months as this was the most effective use of the staff time available to investigate these properties.
• Although empty properties were important a bigger issue was working with landlords to encourage them to take on tenants with lower incomes.
• Officers would also explore the options for empty buildings owned by the county council or other public sector organisations as well as garage sites where a change of use could provide additional housing accommodation. 

The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety advised the committee that there was some limited funding available to progress the issue of compulsory purchase orders. She thanked members for their comments and as the report was not due to go to Cabinet until June there was plenty of time for members to input to the final document. She concluded that there were very challenging times ahead.