To agree the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 10 September 2024, as a correct record.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the Housing & Health Advisory Committee meeting held 10 September 2024 be agreed, and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Any interests not already registered

There were none.

There were none.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing & Health updated the committee on the services within his portfolio. The Housing and Community Hub was held on 29 October 2024. Customers were advised on the changes resulting from the revised Housing Allocations Policy adopted by Council earlier this year. The Homelessness service had averaged 86 homelessness preventions per month this year, avoiding the need for a temporary accommodation placement. This involved securing accommodation in the private rented sector and making offers via the housing register, and helping individuals made homeless by family remain in their home.

The HERO service delivered outreach support offers at the West Kingsdown Food Bank Community Cupboard, Westerham Food Bank, and New Ash Green Village Hall. This involved providing advice on benefits, housing, energy, income, debt, training, and employment and wellbeing.

The Private Sector Housing Team, alongside the Kent County Council (KCC) Household Support Fund, had supported boiler replacements for 6 low-income households to improve energy efficiency.

The Council had secured a grant allocation of roughly £1.4million under round 3 of the Local Authority Housing Fund. The allocation would deliver 9 new affordable homes; 6 units of temporary accommodation, and 3 units for the Afghan Resettlement Program. Two opportunities for the provision of affordable housing that merited further investigation were identified at the Local Government Association conference and were being explored.

On 15 October 2024 the Council and West Kent Housing Association signed a 3-year partnership agreement, which outlined how the organisations would collaborate to provide homes and neighbourhoods people were proud to live in. The new agreement encompassed working together to prevent homelessness through providing support to sustain existing tenancies and rehousing people quickly, better matching residents when their needs change, and delivering a place-based approach to regenerate neighbourhoods.

In response to questions, the Chief Officer for People & Places advised that the Council had previously worked with Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees, and actively explored partnership work with it and other similar organisations.  

There were none.

With the agreement of the Committee, the Chairman brought forward consideration of Item 7 – Budget 2025/26: Review of Service Dashboards and Service Change Impact Assessments (SCIAs).

The Head of Finance presented the report which set out updates to the 2025/26 budget process within the existing framework of the 10-year budget and savings plan.  The position in the report set out an annual budget gap of £297,000 but recognised that this was likely to change as more information became available and options for further savings may be required.

Informed by the latest information from Government and discussions from Cabinet, it was proposed that the Council once again set a balanced 10-year budget.

As part of the feedback received last year, all Members had been invited to make suggestions which related to the relevant Advisory Committee and would be set out in Appendix K. The appendix would form the basis to report to Cabinet all suggestions that were received even if not taken forward by the Advisory Committee.

The report presented growth items that had been identified which needed to be considered, and requested further suggestions from the Advisory Committee and from members attending the meeting, before finalising the budget for 2025/26. 

The Committee considered the proposal set out in Appendix J, which was a single-year growth item of £200,000 to fund the costs of the Homelessness service. Members discussed the need for this growth, noting the increased demand for homelessness services due to the cost of living, increasing rents in the private rented sector, domestic abuse approaches,  and the impact of resettlement schemes. The lack of affordable move-on options meant households were staying in temporary accommodation for longer. They further noted that central government had not yet agreed any funding settlement for a number of projects, including homelessness prevention and rough sleeping, which created further uncertainty. The amount could be reduced should additional funding become available. In response to questions, the Chief Officer for People & Places explained that the amount had been calculated based on the average spend in temporary accommodation, housing benefit reclaim, charging schedules, and budget protections since the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2018. Demand was forecast through trends in general housing need and examining the impacts of upcoming legislation, the cost of living, resettlement schemes and prison releases.

Members gave further consideration to additional suggestions for savings which had been suggested and required consideration of the Committee. The suggestion which was relevant to this Advisory Committee was as follows:

·      That the Council purchase or develop its own temporary housing stock, to reduce expenditure on hotels and temporary accommodation.

In response to questions, members were advised that the council did not make use of hotels when providing temporary accommodation. The Council worked with providers who had access to flats, houses and shared accommodation. Officers had established a good working relationship with Registered Providers, notably West Kent Housing Association and Moat, who provided the Council with approximately 60 units of temporary accommodation, which were at no cost to the Council. In recent years, the Council  had accessed external funding to establish partnership projects to deliver settled, supported accommodation, for example Vine Court Road, Orchard  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

The Health & Communities Manager introduced the report, and gave a presentation to the committee on the One You Service. The presentation outlined the delivery and performance of the service. The service was commissioned by KCC Public Health & Health Care Partnership (Edenbridge), and supported residents to make changes to their physical wellbeing relating to diet, sleep, alcohol consumption, exercise, and vaping. Smoking was handled under a separate scheme, which the service redirected customers towards. Customers were helped to set smart goals which suited themselves to better support long term lifestyle changes.

In the 2023/24 period, 565 referrals had been made to the service; 60% of the customers referred joined the service. A number of customers had complex needs, and some elected to leave the service to focus on a different programme. These customers were advised that they were welcome to return to the service at any time, and were encouraged to choose their own health priority.

The council were in negotiations to extend the contract for the service beyond 31 March 2025. 

Members discussed the report.

Resolved: That the report be noted.  

 The Chief Officer for People & Places presented the report, which set out the annual review of the Housing Strategy 2022 – 2027, which was adopted at Full Council in July 2022. The report sets out the strategy’s four themes, alongside some of the challenges facing the service, together with successes. The Officer noted that the Council is in its last year of funding of MHCLG’s Homelessness Prevention Grant, Rough Sleeper Initiative and Rough Sleeper Accommodation Programme. These funding streams had significantly contributed to staffing costs, temporary and supported accommodation, landlord incentives, homelessness prevention and community support. The Officer explained that many of the staffing posts were fixed-term due to short-term Government funding settlements.

Members discussed the report. They queried whether the risk assessment within the strategy was sufficient, covering risk, mitigation, likelihood, severity, and priority. It was further suggested the Local Plan could be more fully integrated into the plan. Members expressed concern around the high turnover rate within the Housing service, and questioned whether stress from difficult customer interactions was managed sufficiently. Members requested further information on the number of Rural Housing Needs Surveys completed against delivery.

Members also queried the Community Wi-Fi project and options to deliver and fund, as Kent County Council were no longer able to unable do so. The Portfolio Holder for Housing & Health requested Cllr Streatfeild put his questions in writing to him and he would provide a written response to the points raised.

Action: for the Chief Officer for People and Places to provide members with information on Rural Housing Needs Surveys completed against delivery.

Action 2: for the Portfolio Holder for Housing & Health to provide a written response to the Committee on receipt of the questions raised by Cllr Streatfeild.

Members further discussed the national affordable housing, notably social housing shortage. The Chief Officer for People & Places explained that the viability of providing social housing in developments was financially challenging for Registered Providers. The Officer referred Members to the National Planning Policy Framework and Planning’s affordable housing policy percentage on new developments, together with the work undertaken by Housing Policy and Enabling team to work with Registered Providers. Members discussed the mechanisms by which housing providers monitored their social housing stock. Members were advised that there was no legal mechanism to compel people to not under-occupy housing.  The Officer discussed the Changing Spaces project, which provides incentives to social housing tenants to voluntarily downsize to smaller properties.

Action 2: for the Chief Officer for People & Places to provide members with additional information regarding any under-occupancy reviews carried out by housing providers within the district.  

Members discussed the possibility of creating a separate strategy and action plan specifically for social housing. They noted the importance of planning within this proposed strategy. It was proposed and duly seconded that it be recommended to Cabinet that a cross-party working group be created to develop a Social Housing Strategy and Action Plan. The motion was put to the vote and it was:

Resolved: That

a)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

The Chief Officer for People & Places presented the report, which updated the Committee on the response to the recommendations of the Homelessness Prevention Scrutiny Working Group. The recommendations had been presented to Cabinet on 8 February 2024 and had been investigated. The report set out the actions taken in response to the recommendations. Alternative recommendations were proposed where the initial recommendations were seen as unreasonable.

In response to questions, the officer explained that the challenges faced by the service, as detailed within the report, had been considered by Cabinet as part of the Homelessness & Rough Sleeper Strategy and were being addressed.

Resolved: That the report be noted.

Members discussed the work plan. They requested that a representative from West Kent Housing Association be invited to the Committee, to update the Committee on the challenges they faced providing social housing. The Work Plan was noted as below:

21 January 2024

·       Empty Homes Update

·       Health and Wellbeing Partnership Action Plan Q2 Monitoring 

·       2025/26 Health and Wellbeing Partnership Action Plan 

·       Accessing the Private Rented Sector - challenges and opportunities

·       West Kent Housing Association Update