Issue - meetings

Housing Portfolio

To consider report SHAP/092 of the Head of Strategic Housing, which was referred to the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission on 25 November 2024.

RESOLVED

That Full Council be recommended to approve and adopt of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 to 2029 (Appendix A of report SHAP/092) to commence from 1 January 2025.

Reasons for the Recommendations

To fulfil the Council’s legal duty to publish a homelessness strategy upon expiry of the previous strategy.

The Cabinet Member for Housing presented report SHAP/092of the Head of Strategic Housing.  The report sought approval of the new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy. In presenting the proposed Strategy, the Cabinet Member informed the Cabinet of the four priorities, namely, prevention and early intervention, maximising the supply of suitable accommodation, tackling rough sleeping and single homelessness, and preventing repeat homelessness.

Councillor Ayling presented the Overview and Scrutiny Commission’s comments on the report to the Cabinet following consideration of the matter at its meeting on 25 November 2024, which included noting that the new Strategy strengthens the focus of prevention and up-streaming work to develop more early intervention strategies in order to prevent crisis and increase the resilience of residents in the Borough. Also, that the funding for the Rough Sleeping Mult-Disciplinary Team would not be known until the end of the year at the earliest. The Commission had sought clarification regarding the Renters’ Rights Bill, which could potentially bring changes such as ‘no fault’ evictions and its potential impact on homelessness.

Councillors S Mullins, Rana, C Mullins and Jones spoke as part of the discussion on the report and Strategy.

RESOLVED

That Full Council be recommended to approve and adopt of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 to 2029 (Appendix A of report SHAP/092) to commence from 1 January 2025.

Reasons for the Recommendations

To fulfil the Council’s legal duty to publish a homelessness strategy upon expiry of the previous strategy.

To consider report SHAP/092 of the Head of Strategic Housing.

The Commission considered report SHAP/092 and associated appendices A and B of the Head of Strategic Housing. The report sought approval of the new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for 2025-2029.

During the discussion with the Cabinet Member for Housing, the Housing Options Manager and Performance, Policy and Projects Officer, the following comments were made:

·         While the previous strategy did include homelessness prevention as one of its priorities, for the new strategy it was confirmed there was a need to strengthen the focus and to up-stream work to develop more early intervention strategies in order to prevent crisis and increase the resilience of residents in the borough.

·         It was noted that the funding for the Rough Sleeping Mult-Disciplinary Team would not be known until the end of the year at the earliest.

·         Confirmation sought and obtained regarding the Renters’ Rights Bill, which could potentially bring changes such as ‘no fault’ evictions and have an impact on homelessness. However it was noted details were still forthcoming.

·         Acknowledgement that in terms of housing supply, the Crawley Borough Local Plan 2023-2040 identified housing need and identification of the council’s approach to development within the town, this was anticipated to be higher than registered provider delivery, which had generally decreased across the sector.

RESOLVED

That the Commission noted the report and requested that the views expressed during the debate, were fed back to the Cabinet through the Commission’s Comment sheet.