Agenda item

Report of Kath Chamberlain, Head of Services – Stronger Communities

The Head of Service – Stronger Communities introduced the Housing and Communities Manager who operationally managed the homelessness prevention initiatives. 

He aimed to highlight the changes to the Housing Benefit (HB) and Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Regulations, and raise awareness of the impact these changes would have on homelessness prevention services. 

Section 2 of the report set out the costs associated with homelessness and the focus of CBC on prevention work and how this work relied on £65k of funding from Communities and Local Government (CLG). 

Some good news had been the announcement in the Governments Comprehensive Spending Review, that funding would continue to be paid directly to Local Housing Authorities, as part of their Area Based Grants.  This, rather than what had been intended, that the funding would be transferred instead to the County Council’s Area Based Grant. 

Members were referred to Appendix 1.  This set out the range of activities funded by the annual £65k Homelessness Implementation Fund, used by the Housing Options Service to support some of the key priorities within the Homelessness Strategy 2008.

Appendix 2 set out the outcomes that had been achieved following the investment.  These results illustrated the success of the homelessness prevention work.

Future challenges were set out in Appendix 3, with details of specific changes, when they were to be phased in, along with any risks identified. 

Section 4 of the report, detailed initial ideas for managing the potential risks identified in the report and Appendix 3.  This would include open and honest discussions with private landlords, communicating with current tenants and assisting those tenants that want, or need to, to move. 

The following responses were given to questions from members of the committee;

• The £5,300 referred to as the cost per year to the public purse of each household becoming homeless related to many different agencies being involved. 
• The 7 families in 5 bedroom homes would no doubt want to stay in the larger property and the Housing Options Services Team would look at how, this may include debt management, etc.  But some would need to move, perhaps to a large 4 bedroom property.
• Current tenants would not be affected by the change in regulations until April 2012, however they would affect new tenants from the 1April 2011.
• Cuts to housing benefits were not being imposed by CBC and Officers shared members concerns that the changes would result in pockets of low income families in areas with cheaper rental properties. 
• It was important to note that there was also a cost associated with moving from one property to the next, this was an upfront cost which many would not be able to afford.
• Competition from students and those up to 35 years old renting a single room (which had been extended from 25 years old) would increase pressure on those currently occupying one bedroom self-contained accommodation. 
• Unlike boroughs in London, Cheltenham did not have a huge undersupply of properties and could access 30% of all properties regardless of rents. 

Councillor Walklett noted that the University of Gloucestershire had ceased some of its larger courses for the next 2-3 years and as such there would be far reduced numbers of students coming to the town during that period, which he hoped would allay some fears. 

The Chairman thanked both Officers for their attendance.