Agenda item

Report of Assistant Director – Housing and Social Care Commissioning

Purpose of report

To present Cherwell’s draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2021-2026 and associated Action Plan and seek comments and input from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee as part of the consultation process.

The Assistant Director – Housing and Social Care Commissioning will give a presentation to the Committee detailing the key headlines of the strategy.

The full draft strategy can be viewed via the Consultation section of the Cherwell District Council website – www.cherwell.gov.uk/have-your-say

Recommendations

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee is requested to:

 1.1        Note and comment on the contents of the draft strategy and appendices in advance of the documents being finalised and submitted to the Executive at their 1 March 2021 meeting.

Resolved

(1)       That the draft strategy and appendices be noted.

(2)       That Executive be advised the strategy should focus on Social Housing provision rather than Affordable Housing.

(3)       That the Executive be requested to explore the potential of housing co-operatives.

The Committee considered a report and presentation from the Assistant Director – Housing and Social Care Commissioning, which detailed the draft Homelessness and Rough Seeping Strategy for 2021-2026 and the associated action plan.

In introducing the presentation the Assistant Director – Housing and Social Care Commissioning explained that the current Homelessness Strategy had come to an end. As a housing authority it was a statutory requirement for the Council to have a Homelessness Strategy. The proposed new strategy would cover a period of five years, however the Assistant Director – Housing and Social Care Commissioning clarified that the strategy would be kept under review during that time.

The Housing Strategy and Development Team Leader gave an overview of the proposed new strategy, which would be based on six strategic priorities rather than four as in the previous version.

The main changes included a person-centred, strengths based approach to actions and solutions; working with partners and using feedback from customers to identify up-stream prevention; working with registered providers to review the allocation scheme and accept nominations of customers who are ‘tenancy supported’; and improving data capture, recording and monitoring.

The Housing Strategy and Development Team Leader then asked the Committee to consider three brief questions via the Slido online polling app. The questions were:

i)               To what extent do you agree or disagree with our vision for addressing homelessness and rough sleeping?

ii)              Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree that the 6 priorities are the right ones to deliver our vision?

iii)            What are the important things you want to see included in the strategy?

The Housing Strategy and Development Team Leader explained that the draft strategy was out for consultation until 17 January. Feedback received during the consultation, including the comments from the Committee members who had answered the Slido poll questions, would be used to inform any amendments to the strategy, before being considered for adoption by Executive at their meeting on 1 March. All Councillors were encouraged to complete the online survey regarding the draft strategy.

In response to questions from the Committee regarding charities such as mental health specialists being pro-actively invited to respond to the consultation, the Assistant Director – Housing and Social Care Commissioning advised that such groups had been engaged in relation to the County wide strategy, due to the County Council’s lead role in mental health accommodation. However they would also be invited to comment before the consultation closed.

The Committee commented that they would like to see more reference to social housing in the strategy rather than affordable housing, as there was still a need for more social housing in the district.

In response to a request from Councillor Perran Moon, the Leader of the Council confirmed that he would be happy to explore the potential of housing co-operatives across the district.

Resolved

(1)       That the draft strategy and appendices be noted.

(2)       That Executive be advised the strategy should focus on Social Housing provision rather than Affordable Housing.

(3)       That the Executive be requested to explore the potential of housing co-operatives.