The Chair welcomed Kenan Dogan, Housing Options Manager, to his first meeting of the Housing Services Cabinet Committee.

The Housing Options Manager informed the Committee that, as part of managing a Housing Options Service, all local authorities were required to discharge their homeless duty in line with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.

The Localism Act 2011 (sections 148 and 149) introduced provisions which enabled the Council to bring its statutory housing duty under section 193 of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended) to an end, by making an offer of a private rented sector tenancy rather than a social housing tenancy. 

The Council’s Housing Allocation Scheme sets out who will be offered social housing and how they will be prioritised. In order to offer private rented accommodation, the Council needed to have a separate policy in place; the Private Rented Sector Offer policy.

The policy will allow the Council to make an offer of accommodation to people experiencing homelessness, working alongside a series of other tools to help prevent people’s homelessness and move people on from costly and unsettled temporary accommodation, and bring its statutory duty to an end.

The policy would be applied on a case-by-case basis. However, it would consider a series of groups that would ordinarily be prioritised for private rented accommodation; the report detailed the guiding principles that would be applied when making a private rented sector offer. Prior to making an offer, the Council would undertake a suitability assessment to identify affordability and whether the household was already engaged in local services within a particular area, such as schools and medical services. The household would also be supported if moving out of area.

It was noted that households may be offered private rented accommodation outside of the Borough, where appropriate, for example those households may already be living outside of the Borough and/or cannot stay in Gravesham for a particular reason such as fleeing domestic violence or abuse.

Only one suitable offer would need to be made in order for the Council to bring its statutory duty to an end; this included those cases where a household may refuse an offer. In those circumstances, the policy provided a safety net in that those households would have a statutory right for review and/or a reapplication duty.

The Committee was informed that Gravesham, and Kent, faced severe housing pressures across all tenures. A combination of historic and on-going lack of new supply, a reduction in the number of available lets across the social housing stock, welfare reform, and rising property prices and rents, had led to rapidly increasing, and unmet, demand for social housing. This increasing demand had recently started to translate into acute pressure for temporary accommodation. The latest data, both national and local, showed that demand for temporary bed spaces had doubled in two years. Demand remained high and despite a re-focus on preventing homelessness by the Council’s front line Housing Options team, the numbers in nightly paid accommodation had not reduced.

Adopting the Private Rented Sector Offer policy will increase the Council’s abilities to best meet its statutory duties, through providing an additional option to help people access settled accommodation and support the Council to reduce costs. It will also bring the Council in line with many other local authorities who actively make Private Rented Sector Offers to homeless households. The policy takes into account the need to make offers on a case-by-case basis and ensure that all offers of accommodation are suitable and affordable for households. It will help improve people’s life chances and move more quickly into settled accommodation, ending their homelessness. The policy provided a safety net for people who are made an offer of accommodation, including a statutory right to review, a reapplication duty and support if moving out of area.

The Committee was invited to review and comment on the policy.

The Chair of the Committee highlighted that the Council will check the condition and standard of the properties prior to them being offered for accommodation where practicable.

It was noted that Prince William had announced plans to end homelessness therefore the Committee asked whether funding would become available via Prince William’s plans/initiatives. The Head of Housing Solutions advised that in order to end/tackle homelessness then funding would need to be allocated.

The Committee noted the report.