11 01 2006

The Mayor (Councillor Burgess) (ex-officio), Chairman of Policy and Organisation Board (Councillor Hook) (ex-officio) (P), Councillors Allen (P), Carter (P), Mrs Cully (P), Davis, Foster (P), Gill (P), Philpott (P), Rigg (P), Mrs Salter (P) and Mrs Wright (P).

 

 

It was reported that, in accordance with Standing Orders, Councillor Cully had been nominated to attend this meeting in place of Councillor Davis.

 

 

 

 

Apologies were received on behalf of the Mayor, Councillor Burgess and Councillor Davis.

 

 

 

 

There were no declarations of interest.

 

 

 

 

RESOLVED:  That the Minutes of the meeting of the Housing Board held on 17 November 2005 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a true and correct record.

 

 

 

 

There were no deputations.

 

 

 

PART II

 

 

 

 

The Board received a copy of the Housing Services Manager’s report (a copy of which is attached in the Minute Book as Appendix ‘A’) on the above matter.

 

 

RESOLVED: That the Housing Board recommends to the Policy and Organisation Board the disposal of the Orlit Properties, together with associated garden land, to Portsmouth Housing Association and Hermitage Housing Association for no consideration and on terms to be agreed.

 

 

 

 

The Board received a copy of the report of the Housing Services Manager (a copy of which is attached in the Minute Book as Appendix “B”) on the disposal of 79 Avery Lane.

 

 

Members expressed concern that the property had become substantially dilapidated since the last tenant took up residence in 1998 and questioned why the void inspection had not identified defects that could have been repaired at that time, thus preventing damage from escalating. 

 

 

Officers explained that the survey carried out in June 2005 was a full structural survey that identified defects that required substantial works.  The 1998 void property survey was a general survey identifying only work necessary to bring the property up to a standard suitable for letting.

 

 

Members questioned whether the property had been offered to a Housing Association to repair as this would have kept the property within social housing.  Officers assured Members that this solution had been sought but no RSL partner had been interested in the property in view of the substantial works required.

 

 

RESOLVED: That the Housing Board recommend to the Policy and Organisation Board that 79 Avery Lane is disposed of on the open market.

 

 

 

 

The Board received a copy of the report of the Housing Services Manager (a copy of which is attached in the Minute Book as Appendix “C”) on the Allocations Policy Review.

 

 

The Chairman indicated that he had numbered the bullet point paragraphs contained in the Recommendation to the report and would invite discussion on each point separately but, for clarity of discussion, not in the order they appeared in the report.

 

Members considered the proposed deletion of Policy provisions empowering the suspension of an application due to arrears.  Members were unanimous in expressing their concern about the requirement to delete these provisions. The proposed Policy could only use penalty schemes. Members felt that the Policy should not only penalise bad behaviour but also reward good behaviour.  Officers would be required to “second guess” whether a judge would make an outright Possession Order resulting in a serious behaviour penalty.

 

Members recognised that arrears were sometimes accrued that should not result in a serious behaviour penalty, as in the case of vulnerable tenants, sudden illness or other such difficulty. 

 

Members considered that further research should be carried out by the Housing Services Manager in consultation with officers from the Legal Unit to find a way, within Government guidelines, to reward tenants with a history of prompt payment.

 

Members considered the split families’ treatment under the Allocations Policy.  Officers advised that, where no specific Court Order had been given, one of the primary factors taken into consideration when determining with which parent children resided was the Inland Revenue determination of payment of Child Benefit.  Members agreed that, identifying the balance between the need for efficiency in allocating properties (a split family would under-occupy property for part of the week) and the welfare of children of split families was difficult.

 

Members considered the proposed eligibility criteria for GBC sheltered housing outlined at Appendix C of the report.  Members were informed that the word “following” in the final paragraph should be amended to “above”.  Members also agreed that the word “would” in paragraph 1 should be amended to “will”.

 

Members believed the criteria would assist people under the age of 60 requiring sheltered accommodation.

 

Members considered the proposed Banding Scheme housing need assessment for eligible applicants as detailed in Appendix B to the report.

 

Members considered the consultation process undertaken by officers and were informed that 77% of those responding were in favour of the proposed scheme, not 79% as indicated in the report. 

 

Concern was expressed that the Banding Scheme would disadvantage vulnerable clients who could find the criteria difficult to understand. Officers outlined what steps were being planned to ensure vulnerable customers were not disadvantaged and an additional consultation report was to be submitted to the Housing Services Manager, Chairman and Group Spokespersons on this subject.

 

On the points system, people who had been resident in Gosport for a number of years gained additional points.  Members were concerned that the Banding Scheme did not reflect a similar advantage for local people.  Members were informed that length of residency within the Borough might be considered within the behaviour criteria and that comprehensive assessments would be carried out on all housing applications.

 

Members expressed their support for staff within the Housing Unit and acknowledged their hard work in processing housing applications.  However, they felt that the Banding System should not be adopted for the convenience of staff and to the detriment of clients.  The Housing Services Manager confirmed that, if adopted, the Banding Scheme would be transparent and open to review to take advantage of experience gained both by this Borough and from other authorities operating similar schemes.  Pilot schemes already undertaken had indicated that few allocations were made to tenants from outside the Borough to which they had applied.

 

Members discussed the importance of encouraging tenants to downsize from a family home into something smaller, in order to free up larger houses for growing families.  To facilitate this process, Members considered that provisions for downsizing should be included in Bands A and B and not B and C, as indicated in Appendix B to the report.  

 

RESOLVED: That the Board note the contents of the report on the Allocations Policy Review and:

 

·        approve the Housing Need scheme set out in Appendix B of the report, to be implemented upon the adoption of the Choice Based Lettings approach to lettings (due mid 2006), with an amendment to the provisions for tenants wishing to downsize properties being included within Bands A and B and not B and C;

·        defer approval of the deletion from the Allocations Policy of provisions relating to suspension of application where specified arrears apply in order for officers to undertake further research and bring a further report to the Board;

·        approve the deletion from the Allocations Policy on provisions involving the assessment of an estranged partner’s housing circumstance where split household applies forthwith (children residing in more than one household);

·        approve an amendment to the Management Rehousing Panel Policy to include additional eligibility criteria that one or more of the grounds under Section 167(2) Housing Act 1996, apply;

·        approve the additional eligibility criteria for access to this Council’s sheltered schemes as set out in Appendix C of the report;

·        delegate authority to the Housing Services Manager to make necessary arrangements to the Gosport Joint Housing Register Policy to give effect to the Board’s decision; and

·        delegate authority to the Housing Services Manager to amend Schedule Six of the Allocations Policy (schedule of officer decision making powers).