Agenda item - Purchase options for Short Term Temporary Accommodation

Extract from the proceedings of the Housing & New Homes Committee meeting held on the 19^th June 2019 (to follow), together with a report of the Executive Director for Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing.

27.1    This item was referred to Full Council by the Green Group and Councillor Gibson explained the reasons for the referral. Councillor Gibson said that the report highlighted some important principles and he wanted to suggest some expansions to those principles. A Notice of Motion which was passed in December 2017 called for short term temporary accommodation to be brought in-house. The benefits of bringing the service in-house were that buying the accommodation would provide an asset for the Council, there was more control over the conditions and standards and the housing benefit could be retained by the Council rather than private landlords. He suggested that this model should be used for other residential provision and particularly in supported housing. Resources were tight but there had been a similar scheme with the extra care scheme at Brookemead which had saved the Council a lot of money, and he hoped that other similar provisions could be explored.

27.2    Councillor Mears said that this had been debated at Budget Council and Housing Committee meetings and wanted to highlight some concerns with the report. At the Housing & New Homes Committee in June 2019 it was confirmed that there was no such thing as short-term emergency accommodation and this report talked about ‘emergency accommodation’. There was a letter from the Housing Minister stating that there was no change with the Right to Buy receipts until the Government review was completed. Therefore, until informed otherwise that money could be used to buy social rented housing. However, this scheme allowed for 30% of right to buy receipts to be used for the capital project, which was not allowed. Housing must be a priority as there were people in temporary accommodation who had been there for ten years or more, and so more housing was needed not more temporary emergency accommodation.

27.3    Councillor Allcock said he respected Councillor Mears’ comments, but said that the report had already been agreed. He said that purchasing the property would mean it was Council controlled, which would allow for better planning for accommodation and which would ensure that the standards which were aspired to could be met. With regard to emergency accommodation the Council were looking for flexibility and owning property would allow it to be reconfigured and hopefully move into a position where it could become a permanent home.

27.4    RESOLVED: That the report be noted.