To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 11 February 2025, as a correct record.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the meeting of Scrutiny Committee held on the 11 February 2025, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Any declarations not already registered

For reasons of Transparency Cllr Skinner declared  for Minute 78 - Questions for the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Health, that  he was on the board for Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees.

There were none.

There were none.

The Chief Executive, West Kent Housing Association (WKHA) will be in attendance to answer questions on their service including new housing provision and maintenance and refurbishment of current stock and future challenges.

The Chairman welcomed Tracy Allison, CEO of West Kent Housing Association (WKHA) to the Committee, who gave a presentation and explained recent progress made within the organisation.

8,500 homes across Kent were rented below the market value and 79% of residents were reliant on benefits. They had 14 new tenants each week which included re-letting to existing tenants and new tenants. Customer satisfaction remained high at a rating of 4.3 out of 5. The organisation used a company called ‘Rant and Rave!’ To obtain customer satisfaction feedback and this too remained high. At the end of 2024 WKHA had 74% satisfaction rating from residents. WKHA completed approximately 46,000 repair jobs a year and received 536 compliments against 422 complaints.

Unfortunately, there had been an increase in fly-tipping which was costing £500,000 a year to manage. However, investigations were taking place to redesign the bin stores to reduce fly-tipping. They also ran an ‘Adopt an Area’ scheme to encourage residents to look after their local area. Over 600 tenants responded to an engagement survey in respect of changes that would be welcomed in the estate service. 90 residents also signed up to become inspectors for their local area. 900 contacts in respect of anti-social behaviour had also been received of which 51% were solved at a low level, 30% were followed up and no further action was taken, and approximately 5% of the remaining cases were of a serious nature that often required WKHA and police involvement. Some cases resulted in eviction and there were currently eight ongoing serious matters.

91% of their current housing stock had an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating C or above. 632 homes required investment to increase their EPC rating to C or above. WKHA had a ‘fabric first’ approach which allowed them to prioritise adjustments to houses that would result in a positive impact on the residents fuel bills and residents most at risk of fuel poverty were prioritised for the scheme. For the 2025-26 year, investment plans included bathrooms, boilers, doors and kitchens. There was priority given to renovations that residents stated mattered most to them and this included windows and doors. This would in turn impact the energy efficiency of the property. Unfortunately, approximately 300 homes would not meet the Net Zero target and, due to the type of buildings they were, WKHA would seek to dispose of vacant properties and replace them with new build properties. A further 400 homes were flagged as hard to hit Net Zero but were recognised as worthy of an options appraisal to review potential regeneration. They had also increased their housing stock by 158 new homes in the recent year, and had a further 323 homes in contract.

Work had taken place to increase the impact on local communities to encourage resident interaction with the Association. In 2019 there were 790 resident interactions and this figure had increased to 3,000 interactions from April to December 2024 which allowed them to provide support to residents to maintain  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

The Chairman introduced the report which provided an update of performance across the Council as at the end of January 2025.

The Chief Officer for Customer and Resources clarified that in relation to planning appeals data, that costs had not been awarded against or in favour of the Council.

Further clarification was provided by the Chief Officer for Customer and Resources in respect of missed waste collections; the missed general collections was a figure per 100,000 however the missed green waste was a flat figure but there were approximately 40,000 collections per month.

Action 1: For the Chief Officer for Finance and Trading to clarify whether the nationally set target of 55% for missed household waste collections was incorporated into the Councils targets

The Audit indicators remained the same as previously presented however the Chief Officer for Customer and Resources understood the figures were improving although the up-to-date figures were not yet available. Some Members wished to again express their discomfort that the target was below 100%.

The Chairman congratulated the One You team who had achieved and additional 50% success over the target figure.

The Head of Housing confirmed that the number of households in temporary accommodation had further reduced since publication of the agenda, and this figure was now 82. She further clarified that the Council would not refuse emergency accommodation to those in need to maintain positive figures. She confirmed that 59 households had been housed in private sector housing who were homeless and unable to find a suitable and available property through the housing register. An income and expenditure assessment was completed with each applicant before being placed in private sector housing to ensure the property was financially suitable for the resident. The Council would offer rent in advance as well as a deposit to private sector landlords. An additional 40 landlords had agreed to work with the Council in the past year.

Action 2: For the Health and Communities Manager to examine whether the response time to reports of Anti-Social Behaviour should be reduced due to the target being consistently met.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing & Health will be in attendance to answer questions relating to his portfolio.

The Chairman welcomed the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Health to the Committee. He provided an overview of his remit and highlighted the notable developments and achievements within his Portfolio.

The second review of the Housing Strategy had taken place and the Council had faced significant challenges due to key external factors. Reduced levels of affordable housing and low turnover of available lets in the existing housing stock reduced the Council’s ability to help those on the Housing register. However, significant progress had been made in addressing some of the key housing issues and there was a focus on improving the customer journey.

The Private Sector Housing Team could carry out assessments of rental properties and may take action in respect of unacceptable hazards. The team worked with private landlords to promote good quality and safe rental accommodation and to provide guidance on how landlords could meet the various requirements. The Council’s Housing Assistance and Enforcement Policy would be reviewed this year and a revised policy would be taken to the Housing and Health Advisory Committee.

In November 2024 the reviewed Housing Allocation Policy was implemented. The Local Housing Needs surveys had entered their final year and all parish and town councils would be surveyed by April 2025. £2.2million was secured by the Housing Enabling Officer via the Local Authority Housing Fund. This supported the delivery of 17 units. The Council had 100% nominations rights, as well as enabling West Kent Housing Association to deliver a further 18 units. Quercus Housing delivered an additional 10 units in the year 2024-25 which brought its portfolio to 52 homes. 61 new affordable homes were forecast for delivery in the year 2024-25 and 41 of had been delivered. A further 10 homes were allocated in compliance with the Local Lettings Plan and the Housing Allocation Policy.

There had been a surge in demand on the Council’s Housing service. Cost of living, rising rents and evictions in the private sector, private landlords leaving the market, and friends and family unable to accommodate were some of the external factors which had an impact of the number of homelessness presentations made to the Council. The Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy had been commended by Ministry For Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and would be used as good practice for other local authorities. A monthly housing and communities hub was held at Argyle Road and partner organisations such as DAVSS, Citizens Advice, Imago and the HERO service attended, with different themed events such as armed forces, domestic abuse and young people. The hub offered a ‘one stop shop’ to allow customers to obtain advice from different organisations. On the 24 May 2024 the Sevenoaks Landlords Hub Forum was held. This was attended by the Chair of the Housing and Health Advisory Committee. Feedback had been obtained at the forum for what landlords would like from the gold, silver and bronze incentive packages.

A Changing Spaces Officer had been recruited for the Changing Spaces Scheme which enabled  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

The Portfolio Holder for People and Places will be in attendance to answer questions relating to her portfolio.

The Chairman welcomed the Portfolio Holder for People and Places to the Committee. She provided an overview of her remit and highlighted the notable developments and achievements within her Portfolio. She explained that the ten year partnership community plan incorporated a three year action plan which was in its final year. The action plan set out actions to delivery priorities whilst highlighting assets within the community.

Applications had been received for Community Grants or the year 2025-26 and these had been appraised by officers and the Portfolio Holder for People and Places. Successful applicants would receive the funding in April 2025. A Social Value Engine was used to demonstrate the generated social value from the projects.

The Health and Communities team attended a Seniors Information morning in Hextable alongside CSU and HERO teams to provide advice on topics such as cost of living, health and wellbeing and community support services. Progress had been made with a number of VE Day plans which were taking place across the district. These included Let’s Cook 1940’s rations and a celebration afternoon tea event on the 9May. A celebration of the Better Together online platform event was also due to take place on the 12 May at the Meeting Point in Swanley. An additional two lunch clubs had been launched; one in Hextable and one in West Kingsdown. These were funded by the Dartford Gravesham & Swanley Health & Care Partnership. Three tea dances in aid of Armed Forces Day also took place in June 2024 and these were well attended with the event in Swanley attracting 106 people.

A further seven cooking on a budget courses were run by the Council’s award winning Better Together initiative and an additional five, five week cooking courses for residents with disabilities were due to complete mid-April 2025. The Better Together online hub had grown to 40 organisations, offered 175 community services and activities across the district. The website attracted approximately 1,000 views in the last two quarters and ad campaigns had been created to encourage engagement.

The Better Together grant applications closed at the end of March. The Local Strategic Partnership appraised 23 applications which resulted in £8,000 of UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) being awarded to 11 community groups and grassroots organisations. The current UKSPF was due to conclude at the end of March and was on track to be fully spent with £7,700 in grants distributed. There were also other grants issued via other grant programs such as The Cultural Grants programme - that issued 13 grants totalling £16,700 and West Kent Green grants programme delivered a total of £11,500 in grants to support sustainability projects. Additionally, the Council’s Workboost programme authorised 30 employment support grants to support employment in local companies which placed 26 residents. A range of Town Centre activity and Town Centre Public Realm grants had been provided totalling  approximately £172,000. These would enable public realm improvements and support pop-up markets and events in town centres. Further funding had been secured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

The work plan was noted with the following additions:

Summer 2025

·         Everyone Active

·         New group to be constituted to look at consistency and compare KPIs across West Kent authorities

Spring 2026:

·         Kent Police

Summer 2026:

·         NHS Update