Agenda item

Cllr Donald Nannestad, Portfolio Holder for Quality Housing, presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee and gave an update on the following areas:

-       Homelessness - This continued to be a significant issue in Lincoln with a total of 356 people approaching the Council as homeless in the first six months of 2019/20.

-       Tenancy Management. Rent arrears as of the end of Quarter Three were £107,000 above the same point last year. There had been an increase of 641 tenants claiming Universal Credit in the past 12 months which was having a significant impact on arrears. An Income Officer had been recruited until the end of March 2020 to assist specifically with income collection and mitigate the impact of Universal Credit.

-       New Build/Allocations. The addition of 172 new Council homes during 2018/19 was the most significant increase in the number of Council houses in Lincoln in a 12 month period for over 40 years. Work was continuing to progress with work underway on building a 70 bed extra care unit on the site of the former De Wint Court sheltered housing scheme.

-       Health. The annual health profile for Lincoln produced by Public Health England showed some challenging data. The life expectancy at birth for both men and women was worse than for the rest of England. Within Lincoln the figures showed inequalities of health with life expectancy being 12 years lower for men and 8.7 years lower for women in the most deprived area of the City than in the least deprived areas. Lincoln was one of the 20% most deprived districts/unitary authorities in England and 21.2% children lived in low income families.

He invited members’ comments and questions.

Question: The Travelodge took people that needed emergency accommodation from other authorities that couldn’t provide one bedroom accommodation. Members asked whether these were included in our figures?

Response: These were not included in our figures.

Question: There were 285 families placed in temporary accommodation which included 217 children. Members asked if data was available for the reasons why this was happening and what was being done to help prevent this?

Response: Data was available as to why people were being made homeless. There was a range of different reasons why which included the following:

-       Evictions

-       Fleeing domestic violence

-       Evictions due to non-payment of rent

-       Marital disputes

Question: Members asked what temporary accommodation was?

Response: Temporary accommodation was used for people who were waiting to be housed. B&B’s were used as an emergency and were short term. There were three cases over the festive period where B&B’s were used.

Comment: Members commented that they understood why other authorities would send residents to the city as there was a lot of support and charities

Question: Current legislation stated that if you were homeless you would get help at the point the application was made. Members asked how the customers that were housed in the Travelodge met the legislation as when they left after their stay they would remain within the city and put pressure on our services?

Response: Officers agreed that this did add pressure when customers were allocated to the city and this was a matter of demand and supply. The rough sleeper count had remained nearly the same for a few years.

Question: P3 took over some council properties to help with the rough sleeper project. Members asked whether these were included in our figures?

Response: The figures for the rough sleepers came from people that had been found on the street.

Comment: Members commented that they were aware of the mental and physical effect that moving people out of the city to be housed was having on them.

Response: There were people working with authorities  to try and help these situations. Some other authorities could do more to help.

Question: Members asked how partnerships were managed and monitored to measure how effective they were?

Response: P3 previously ran active lincs which was now run by the council. There were provisions put in place after the three year project had ended to help the people that were part of the project. There were regular liaison meetings with P3 to help with monitoring. Feedback was received from people that had been rehoused with P3 and were monitored by Lincolnshire County Councils contracts process. Feedback received was that the project had been successful in Lincoln. There were occasions where P3 and the council could of done more but generally speaking this had been good.

Question: Members asked for clarity on how many people had approached the council as homeless and how many had been prevented?

Response: Officers would clarify this and report back to members under separate cover.

Question: Members asked why many applicants that were on the housing waiting list had no connection with Lincoln?

Response: The council currently had an open waiting list with no criteria that stated that applicants needed to demonstrate connections to the city. this information would be hard to source.

Question: Members asked what had been happening with regard to health figures as the data in the appendix did not refer tostate anything for the last few years?

Response: The figures were produced by Public Health England and were the most up to date figures available. The report was produced in November rather than July. There was a county wide Housing and Wellbeing Strategy whereby housing was included. Some houses were how they used to be in 1950 as tenants wouldn’t accept decent homes works. There was a Lincoln standard for our properties and this was set at 98%.

Question: Members asked whether performance figures for education could be brought up with Lincolnshire County Council as the GCSE figures were poor and the council didn’t get an oversight of education?

Response: This request would need to be taken to Executive and a representative sent to Lincolnshire County Council to ask for more information on how these figures and life expectancy within the city could be improved.

Comment: Members commented that there were huge amounts of data available but it needed to be mapped and correlated so members could see where life expectancy was the lowest within the city.

RESOLVED that:

1.    clarification on how many people approached the council as homeless and how many had been prevented was to be circulated to committee members

2.    the content of the report be noted.