Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Amit Alva Email: Amit.Alva@southwark.gov.uk
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Apologies
To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: Under Chair’s announcements it was noted that Councillor Damian O’ Brien has been appointed the Vice-Chair of the Housing and Community Engagement Scrutiny Commission at the 13 October 2021, Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.
Councillor Lorraine Lauder MBE has been replaced by Councillor Renata Hamvas, this is due to Councillor Lauder’s ill health, and the commission wished her a speedy recovery.
The commission also noted that due to issues of the blocking of the automated external email notifications on the Southwark IT network and also meeting invites being sent out for the whole year prior to the appointment of Co-opted members, Cris Claridge and Ina Negoita were unable to attend the previous meeting due to very short notice and through no fault of their own.
There were no apologies for absence. |
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Notification of any Items of business which the chair deems urgent.
In special circumstances, an item of business may be added to an agenda within five clear working days of the meeting. Minutes: There were no items of business which the Chair deemed urgent. |
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Disclosure of interests and dispensations.
Members to declare any interests and dispensations in respect of any item of business to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: There were no disclosures of interests or dispensations. |
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Minutes
To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 5 October 2021. Supporting documents: Minutes: RESOLVED:
That the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 October 2021 be agreed as a correct record. |
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Private rented housing, including licencing and the renter's union
· Interview with Councillor Darren Merrill, Cabinet Member for a Safer, Cleaner Borough.
· To receive reports from officers - Emma Trott, Private Sector Housing Enforcement Manager and Matt Clubb, Director of Environment and Leisure on:
Ø Private rented housing, including licencing and the renter’s union. Report & Appendices 1 to 11.
Ø Report/results on private rented sector survey of residents. Appendices 12 (1 of 2), 12 (2 of 2), 13 and 14.
Supporting documents: Minutes: Under this item the commission received a report and interviewed Councillor Darren Merrill, Cabinet member for a Safer Cleaner Borough on private rented housing. Councillor Merrill started his address by the bringing to the notice of the commission an error in the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 October 2021, the role of Councillor Stephanie Cryan was incorrectly recorded as the Leader of the Council. The Chair and commission noted this error and officers were asked to amend the Minutes, this has been edited in the Minutes.
Councillor Merrill explained to the commission that there is approximately 29% private sector rented homes in Southwark, under the licencing scheme the Council is allowed to license 20% of private rented licence homes without having to go out to private rented organisations, this would be the first phase of licensing, gathering data and building an evidence base to go further onto the rest of the housing estates and eventually having up to 85% of private rented sector in the licencing scheme. In addition the council has launched gold standard scheme which certifies properties with higher standards that are energy efficient, well maintained, reasonable renting cost and good tenancy agreements in place, there is also a gold standard plus scheme where if landlords are convinced to rent out to tenants on the council list then they would not have to pay for the licence.
The commission then received a presentation from Emma Trott, Private Sector Housing Enforcement on driving up standards in the private rented sector. Emma explained to the commission the three different types of licensing, Selective- single family or two sharers, Additional HMO- houses in multiple occupation (HMO) let up to 3 or 4 unrelated people and Mandatory HMO- let to 5 or more unrelated people. The commission also learned that there is a process to introduce Selective and Additional licensing other than the Mandatory HMO licensing which the council has been carrying out, this involves following legislation from Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) for Council wide strategy to improve Private Rented Sector (PRS) standards, meeting criteria such as gathering robust evidence of poor management for Additional licensing, Selective Licensing requiring robust evidence of high levels of PRS. Furthermore, public consultation needs to be carried out for a minimum of 10 weeks ensuring stakeholders and all residents also including landlords not living in the borough are reached, the next step is to apply to Secretary of state for any selective licensing schemes that are larger than 20% of the geographical area of the borough or more than 20% of the private rented sector.
The commission also learned that so far (2016-2020) the selective licensing scheme for single family houses in the borough was based on Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) data as that was the only criteria in the legislation at that time. The new selective licensing scheme included data on property conditions and levels of deprivation obtained from Office of National Statistics (ONS) and Council held enforcement, housing benefits ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Policy and Practice on mutual exchange housing options
To receive a report from officers – Ricky Belott, Head of Housing Supply, Cheryl Russell, Director of Resident Services and Equeye Robertson, Area Manager (South), Housing and Modernisation on policy and practice on mutual exchange housing options. Report and Appendices A, B & C. Supporting documents: Minutes: Under this item the commission heard from Councillor Stephanie Cryan, Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Homelessness and also received a report from supporting officers Ricky Belott, Head of Housing Supply, Cheryl Russell, Director of Resident Services and Equeye Robertson, Area Manager (South), Housing and Modernisation on policy and practice on mutual exchange housing options.
Councillor Cryan explained to the commission that there is a lot of room for improvement on policy and practice on mutual exchange housing options in terms of lack of awareness amongst the residents, ease of access to these options and the council’s initiatives to drive mutual exchange housing options. Councillor Cryan further informed the commission of the benefits of using a holistic approach on mutual exchange housing options as a way to decrease the pressure on the housing waiting list of 16,000 residents by bringing together residents who might have mutual needs of upsizing or downsizing. The current prescriptive approach of the councils only allows residents to mutually exchange if they are willing to downsize to a property which is the council’s estimation of their housing needs, often residents are not willing to choose this option as they could require extra bedroom for other reasons e.g. children moving back in with their parents due to relationship breakdowns, visiting grandchildren.
The commission also learnt from Councillor Cryan that there is an action plan for housing mobility (Appendix C) which involves investing in technology to make it easier for people to access as the current mutual housing exchange information is hard to find. The commission also learned about a scheme from the Mayor of London which offer mutual exchange housing to coast and country side which can be better advertised through the Council website. One of the proposals being considered is to launch a localised pilot program to introduce residents with mutual housing needs.
The commission then had questions around the following points
· Plan for residents struggling with debt, rent arrears or service charges · Radically incentivizing mutual exchange housing options
Ricky explained to the commission that the income team has been looking at flexibility and working with the household, maximising their payments and their incomes, looking at payments history, and incentives for residents willing to downsize. Incentives gained as a result of downsizing could be used to pay rent arrears, in addition referrals to financial inclusion team for residents struggling with rent arrears to rent arrears funding sources.
The Chair suggested looking into radically incentivizing mutual exchange housing such as writing off rent arrears which could possibly result in financial savings for the Council. Councillor Cryan explained to the commission that there are benefits in radically incentivising mutual exchanges releasing the some of the pressure on the housing waiting list and also that the Council currently pays private sector for temporary accommodation to fulfil some of the housing waiting list demands. Equeye explained to the commission that the team behind mutual housing exchange is looking at ways to externalise the process to make it easier for residents ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Work Programme 2021/22
To discuss and agree the commission’s work programme for 2021/22. Supporting documents: Minutes: The report was noted by the commission.
The commission agreed to add Noise and Nuisance in Southwark to its work plan as an agenda item for the 7 February 2022 meeting. |