Agenda and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence. Councillor Asif Siddique was attending remotely.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Omid Miri to the Committee.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

Matters Arising

In response to the Chair’s request, Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) gave an update further to the discussion at the last meeting. He noted the Repairs service continued its major improvement yielding a high resident satisfaction rate of 80/90, as compared to 40/50 when he first came on board. The satisfaction rate of the contact centre had also increased to 90% in the last three months, with no overdue complaints for the last five months. The Repairs service had turned things around by strengthening contract management including engaging the DLO for sheltered housing repairs work and enhancing independent inspections before and after the repairs.  The Repairs team had been triaging to make sure the right trades were providing the required services at the right time. On the outstanding information requested at the last meeting on complaint-related compensation, Richard undertook to look into the matter and provide the information.

ACTION: Richard Shwe 

RESOLVED

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 March were agreed to be accurate.

This report provides an update on homelessness and rough sleeping across in the borough and the actions that are in place to manage homelessness demand and improve service delivery.

The Chair explained that this meeting shall focus on homelessness prevention and temporary accommodation which was distinct from rough sleeping. Homelessness was one that residents might find themselves in through no fault of their own and facing a future without the fundamental need of a shelter and it could be very frightening.  The purpose of the Committee’s scrutiny was to understand the achievable ambitions behind the statutory mechanism. The Chair said she was keen to bring in strategic and delivery partners when the Committee scheduled a discussion on rough sleeping. 

Clare Dorning (Head of Homelessness) gave a presentation on the report,  including ways to access the homelessness service, the Council’s homelessness duties, homelessness demand, the help and support offered by the Council, accessing Council and housing association properties.

Councillor Omid Miri appreciated the report and presentation. Noting it was the ambition of the Homelessness service to reverse the current proportion of households approaching the service at the Prevention stage (30%) and Relief stage (70%), he asked about the alarming indicators, if any, that could be used to achieve this.

Clare Dorning advised that the Homelessness Prevention team would improve communication for example via the website so that residents being served an eviction notice could approach them earlier for help allowing work to be done as soon as the 56-day prevention period started. The team could also communicate with parents evicting their 18+ year old due to a clash of lifestyle for example and talk them into helping the 18+ year old to find private rented sector (PRS) accommodation in a few months’ time while the young person was being put onto the housing register. Following proactive lines of negotiation for planned departure of the 18+, homelessness was thus prevented. Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) also referred to the case study 1 (page 13) on the successful prevention of the risk of homelessness.

On eviction by friends and families, the Chair considered a healthy stock of social housing and more affordable PRS properties would help relieve the pressure on homelessness prevention.

Councillor Miri sought elaboration on PRS prevention offer. Clare Dorning explained that for a household at risk of homelessness and willing to move into PRS properties, to incentivise that willingness leading to homelessness prevention, the household would be placed on the housing register.

Councillor Adroine Alford expressed the concern about officers’ decisions leading to unintended undesirable consequences. For example, placing a homeless carer out of the borough would increase their expenses rendering the service to the vulnerable residents in the borough.

In response, Richard Shwe referred to the multi-agency approach adopted some six months ago.  The Homelessness Assessment team would work with colleagues in Adult Social Care, Children’s services and health professionals to pool all available resources together to help and support vulnerable residents in need. Clare Dorning noted that to enhance service delivery and improve residents’ experience, the Homelessness service had increased face-to-face presence in the reception of 145 King Street to provide initial general advice directly to affected  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This report presents a draft H&F Private Rented Sector (PRS) Policy (Appendix 1) which sets out a vision for supporting residents to access affordable, secure, and high-quality PRS homes, and to help make standards among the best in London. The amended policy will be submitted to Cabinet for consideration in Autumn 2024.

Stefan Robinson (Head of Policy and Programme Management Office) explained that the Policy Team had been working in collaboration with the Private Rented Sector (PRS) Team to set a clear policy position on how the Council would support residents to access high quality private rented homes in the borough. He then presented the background leading to the draft H&F PRS Policy, including how the PRS had grown significantly over recent years, and the work undertaken to engage with 270 renters, landlords and local residents through a survey, focus groups or interviews.

Ed Shaylor (Assistant Director, Housing Standards) outlined the powers, namely, environmental health power and public health power used by the Council to intervene with the private landlords. He also briefed members on his team’s involvement in the borough’s housing standards, including those Council properties on the private rented market and temporary accommodation.  He then continued the presentation to outline the priorities and draft commitments of the PRS policy.

Noting the powers available to the Council to intervene with the private landlords, Councillor Omid Miri considered it was necessary to strengthen communication and enhance renters’ awareness about their rights.

Ed Shaylor agreed with the Chair that private landlords needed to ensure safety standards were met in rented premises just like restaurant operators.  It was also important for the renters to know how to exercise their statutory rights.  He then detailed what private renters could do in seeking rent payment orders or settling deposit disputes at a county court, and lodging complaints against the letting agent through the property redress scheme or ombudsman schemes.

Councillor Francis Umeh (Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness) supplemented that one of the draft policy priorities was shaping the national conversation. H&F would support the introduction of a landlord register across the borough to provide residents with public information on the quality of the properties and landlords.  She believed landlords would become more effective in their role through the process. 

In this regard, Councillor Miri pointed out that landlords were providing housing supply and the average rent might go up if they were forced to exit the market due to increased demand on them. To ensure landlords and renters  understood where they could seek support, he suggested providing a one-page briefing note to the ward councillors to help spread the message.  Ed Shaylor said consideration would be given to briefing the councillors on the PRS policy.

ACTION: Ed Shaylor

Councillor Asif Siddique asked for the number of local authorities having a PRS policy in place. He was also concerned that the scheme of HMO licensing in H&F was not as successful as those in some other London councils.  He wondered if it was due to the high licence fees.

Stefan Richardson estimated that based on the Policy Team’s research, approximately half of the London boroughs examined had some form of public PRS policy or strategy, and that these were becoming increasingly common because of the rise in the number of PRS homes.  Generally,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To note the dates of future meetings:

· 12 November 2024

· 27 January 2025

· 23 April 2025

The Committee noted the dates of future meetings:

· 12 November 2024

· 27 January 2025

· 23 April 2025

The Chair suggested discussing the following items at these meetings:

·       Hidden homelessness and rough sleeping (with third sector partners)

·       Voids and Repairs

·       Follow up to the Housing Ombudsman’s recommendations