Venue: LB 31-32 - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions
Contact: Laura Wilson Senior Governance Officer
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Minutes: Councillor Sue Johnson – leave Councillor Gul Nawaz Khan – other Council business Councillor Cate Woodward – other Council business |
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DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS Minutes: None |
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To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 4 April 2018 Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 4 April 2018 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. |
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Overview and Scrutiny Committee Terms of Reference PDF 199 KB Report of Head of Legal and Governance Minutes: RESOLVED to approve the terms of reference for the Committee, as approved at Council on 14 May 2018 |
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Establishment of the Overview and Scrutiny Call-in Panel PDF 108 KB Report of Head of Legal and Governance
Additional documents: Minutes: RESOLVED to approve
(1)
the terms of reference of the Call-In Panel, as
detailed in Appendix 1 of the report; (2) the membership of the Call-In Panel as detailed below:
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Report of Head of Legal and Governance Additional documents:
Minutes: Gary Harvey, Head of Housing Solutions, introduced the report and gave a presentation to the Committee on the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) and its implications, highlighting the following:
(a)
the HRA amends the Housing Act 1996 Part VII and will have an
impact on the way in which homelessness prevention services are
delivered and how services should link to wider support such as
training, employment and health to increase resilience to
homelessness; (b)
after receiving all party support, the HRA received royal assent in
April 2017 and commenced in April 2018; (c)
the period that a person may be threatened with homelessness if
they have been served a valid notice for shorthold tenancy has
extended from 28 to 56 days; (d)
there is now a duty on the Council to provide advice and information free of charge on preventing
homelessness, securing accommodation when homeless, the rights of
people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, the help
available in the district and how to access that help; (e)
everyone who is homeless or threatened
with homelessness must have a Personal Housing Plan (PHP) assessing
their circumstances, housing needs and support needs. They must
have at least one face to face interview and be notified of the
outcome of the assessment in writing. The PHP must have agreement
from the applicant; (f)
the legislation includes a duty to
prevent homelessness, for a period of 56 days of homelessness being
threatened, and take reasonable steps to ensure the accommodation
does not cease to be available. This duty can be ended early for a
number of reasons including if the applicant refused an offer of
suitable accommodation that had reasonable prospects of being
available for at least 6 months; (g)
the legislation also contains a duty to
relieve homelessness to all who are homeless, meaning that the
Council must take reasonable steps to help ensure accommodation for
at least 6 months. At this stage applicants can be referred to
another authority area based on local connections; (h)
applicants are required to cooperate
with reasonable steps that the Council sets out as part of its
prevention and relief duties. If they do not, a warning must be
served, agreed by at least 2 officers, giving clear notice of the
need to comply along with the consequences of
non-cooperation; (i)
care leavers will be able to demonstrate a local connection to the
Local Authority area where they have been looked after, or an area
where they have lived for at least 2 years including some time
before they were 16 years old; (j)
a duty for public bodies to refer known
cases of homelessness or threat of homelessness to the Local
Authority will come into force in October 2018. This will require
the consent of the individual and a choice as to which authority
their case is referred to; (k)
suitability checks of accommodation have
been extended to include offers of accommodation within the Private
Rented Sector (PRS). Offers for non-priority households under
prevention or relief duties are exempt from this, although
Nottingham City Council intends to only make offers of suitable
accommodation in all cases; (l) all Housing Aid staff have been trained on the new legislation and new IT systems have been implemented for compliance. Support services have also been re-commissioned including independent living support and rough sleeping.
The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:
(m)the
Council does not have a duty to refer ineligible cases to the Home
Office, and is prohibited from providing assistance to those that
are ineligible for it. There can be exceptions for particularly
vulnerable people and these will be referred to Social
Services; (n)
the legislation has been implemented
earlier in Wales and has resulted in more homelessness prevention
and relief. However, it is difficult to compare due to
Wales’s relatively small population. It remains to be seen
whether the legislation will improve resilience to
homelessness; (o)
further issues causing homelessness that the legislation does not
solve include a lack of affordable accommodation, the introduction
of Universal Credit, cutbacks to health service and local
authorities, and a lack of services for the homeless; (p)
the duty to prevent and relieve homelessness is regardless of
whether somebody has intentionally made themselves homeless or
not; (q)
all new cases after 3 April 2018 are
considered under the new legislation, with cases still pending from before this date being
dealt with under the old legislation. Introduction of the new
legislation has resulted in an influx of new cases, 614 so far,
with 236 at the prevention stage, 167 at the relief stage and 196
cases closed; (r)
applicants may express a preference of a
specific area in their PHP, though some areas have high demand and
will not be possible. Applicants must also take an active role in
seeking accommodation themselves; (s)
the number of applications will be
monitored and the Council will make annual returns to the
government. Currently 4-5,000 households need some help in
Nottingham every year. The top causes of homelessness are Section
21 notices from private landlords and family breakdowns; RESOLVED to thank Gary for the information provided |
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Report of Head of Legal and Governance
Minutes: RESOLVED to note the work that is currently planned for the 2018/19 municipal year |
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Dates of future meetings To consider meeting at 2.00pm on the following Wednesdays:
2018 2019 6 June 9 January 4 July 6 February 5 September 6 March 3 October 7 November 5 December
Minutes: RESOLVED to meet at 2.00pm on the following Wednesdays:
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