Agenda item

Report of Corporate Director for Growth and City Development

Councillor Hays, Portfolio Holder for Housing, introduced the report.

Rachael Harding, Homelessness Strategy Manager, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  over recent years there has been an increase nationally in the number of households at risk of homelessness;

b)  Nottingham City Council’s primary approach is to try to prevent and relieve homelessness, but when this is not possible, the council has a statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation to households who are eligible, homeless and considered to be in priority need;

c)  the council has significantly increased supply of temporary accommodation, but not at a sufficient rate to keep up with demand, and the council has been required to rely upon emergency use of hotels;

d)  hotels are also used by other departments in the council, such as adults and children social care, communities and public health, to fulfil other statutory, humanitarian and public protection duties, and responsibilities to vulnerable households;

e)  currently, 90% of emergency accommodation for citizens is accessed via a procured online booking system. However, this system was not specifically designed to meet citizen accommodation needs and is not representative of the market of privately owned, instantly accessible accommodation options, and crucially does not provide the ability to secure discounted rates for multiple and / or block booking arrangements;

f)  at its meeting in January 2024 (minute 55), this Committee noted the requirement to explore alternative compliant procurement arrangements for emergency accommodation for households to whom the council owes a duty, in order to secure best value for the council and to provide a more suitable and appropriate form of emergency accommodation to households with dependent children.

Resolved to

(1)  approve the establishment of a flexible framework (under a light-touch procurement regime) of providers of privately owned, short-term rental accommodation as a mechanism for the compliant future contracting of the services to fulfil statutory duties for accommodating vulnerable households;

(2)  note that the value of this contract is spend redirected from the existing booking system (approved by this Committee in January 2024, minute 55) and is not additional spend to be incurred by the Council;

(3)  approve a maximum total expenditure of £6,461,560 under the regime, and delegate authority to award individual contracts under the framework agreement to the Corporate Director of Growth and City Development (and other Corporate Directors as appropriate for use), in line with s114 procedures;

(4)  delegate authority to the Head of Housing Solutions and Head of Housing Strategy and Regeneration (and other Heads of Service as appropriate for use) to obtain services via the framework within the budget value;

(5)  extend the contracts as interim arrangements pending the introduction of the framework.

Reasons for recommendations

a)  the council has a statutory duty to provide emergency accommodation for vulnerable citizens in accordance with relevant legislation (including housing, homelessness, and social care);

b)  the council is required to source the accommodation in a way that is compliant with procurement regulations, and which offers best value, quality assurance and auditable use;

c)  the council has reviewed current arrangements and has identified a process to access additional market options that have been assessed as deliverable at lower cost and are more appropriate for family use.

Other options considered

a)  not to establish a compliant process for procuring a variety of forms of privately owned short-term furnished rental accommodation and:

(i)  to continue to use existing arrangements to secure emergency accommodation for vulnerable households. This was rejected because it is not considered that the current system allows for the best value options;

(ii)  explore ad-hoc arrangements with individual suppliers. This was rejected because this would not be compliant with procurement regulations.