Agenda item

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 Cllr A Todd and seconded by Cllr S Jones. Upon being put to vote, the motion was carried unanimously.

 

Decision:

 

To recommend to Cabinet:

 

2.    That Dorset Council endorses the approach described in Settled Accommodation Lease Model (appendix 3) and requests that options for the delivery, funding, and management of the model, including corporate structures and partnership delivery, are explored, and reported back to Cabinet for approval of the recommended approach.

 

3.    That Dorset Council endorses the approach described in Development Partnership Pilot Model (appendix 4) and requests that options for the partnership delivery are explored and reported back to Cabinet for approval of the recommended approach.

 

4.    That Dorset Council adopt the approach described in Asset Led Development Pilot Model (appendix 5) and that authority is delegated to the Executive Director for Adults & Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Health and Housing to implement the model.

 

5.    That Dorset Council explores and reports back to Cabinet on options for its housing company.