Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Cathy Lugg and Julie Robinson.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2025.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 21 January 2025 were confirmed and signed.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via Microsoft Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  For further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to george.dare@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Monday, 17 March 2025.

When submitting your question or statement please note that: 

·       You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

·       a question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

·       It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

·       Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

·       when submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder) 

·       Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting. 

·       questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda. 

·       all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.   

There was no public participation.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.  

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total.   Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting. 

The submissions must be emailed in full to george.dare@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Monday, 17 March 2025. 

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no questions from councillors.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4)b) of the Local Government Act 1972.  The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To consider a report by the Service Manager for Housing Strategy and Performance.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Housing introduced the report and outlined the purpose of the of the report.

The Corporate Director for Housing gave a presentation to the committee, which is attached as an appendix to these minutes. The presentation included the housing targets in the council plan and the housing strategy objectives. He outlined the recommendations and each of the approaches, which members then discussed in turn.

During the discussion, the committee raised the following points and received answers from officers and the Cabinet Member for Health and Housing.

·         The options presented in the report were initial options. There were would opportunities to implement other options if opportunities arise.

·         The temporary accommodation model would provide around 50 homes for use as temporary accommodation, at a rate of approximately 4 homes per month.

·         The housing market would be monitored using land registry data to ensure that the market was not being skewed.

·         In response to a question about confidence levels in there being a sufficient supply of housing, officers advised that the numbers were proportionate to the 7.5k house sales in the past year. Landlords were also leaving, so there were other routes to acquisition not through the open market.

·         The temporary accommodation model would replace B&B use for temporary accommodation; however, it would be treated the same as B&B use to ensure tenants are moved into more settled accommodation.

·         There was further work needed for the settled accommodation lease model, which would explore issues such as would the council be exposed to costs if it did not own the assets, and the type of investors.

·         The length of leases would be explored; however, they would need to be long, and a balance between the length of the lease and affordability for the tenant.

·         A member advised that there should be assessments and learning from other local authorities implementing the settled accommodation lease model, due to the risks of it.

·         The development partnership pilot model would create new housing and therefore increase supply.

·         The approach to this model would be similar to the extra care housing scheme, where the land is sold to a provider and the council would enter an agreement with them.

·         There was an aim to report back to Cabinet on the development partnership pilot model by the end of the financial year 2025/26.

·         The homes in the asset led development pilot model would not have right to buy.

A member was concerned about recommending that Cabinet adopt the temporary accommodation lease model, because he felt there was not enough financial information available.

Recommendation 1 was proposed by Cllr A Todd and seconded by Cllr J Orrell. Upon being put to vote, the motion was carried.

Decision:

To recommend to Cabinet:

1.    That Dorset Council adopt the Temporary Accommodation Lease Model (appendix 2) and that authority be delegated to the Executive Director for Adults & Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Health and Housing to implement the model.

Recommendations 2-5 were proposed by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

To consider the Committee's Work Programme and the Executive Forward Plans.

The committee noted its work programme and the executive’s forward plans.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph x of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.  

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.