Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director for Housing and Growth. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning.] Cabinet approval  will be sought on a revised Estate Renewal Rehousing and Payments Policy following consultation. The policy sets out the rehousing commitments for secure and assured tenants, and for leaseholders who are required to move due to regeneration.

The Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning introduced the report which sought agreement, following public consultation, to a revised Estate Renewal Rehousing and Payments Policy. This policy included a set of commitments, attached at appendix 3, to residents whose properties will be demolished as part of a renewal scheme.

The Cabinet Member highlighted the following:

·         More than 80% of tenants consulted on the policy had agreed with the commitments put forward.

·         The commitments in the policy are the minimum offer to residents affected by a regeneration scheme. Where possible the Council, working with the HDV or other partners, would strive to go beyond the policy’s requirements.

·         Following the consultation, the Council recognised that the individual circumstances of some residents/leaseholders could lead to an inequitable or unfair outcome in some cases. An Estate Renewal Payments Discretionary Panel was therefore proposed as a body to consider these cases in line with the policy’s general principles.

The Cabinet Member proposed that in Appendix 3 (proposed Policy), page 3 entitled The Council’s Commitments to residents’, the second bullet point and associated text should be amended as follows:

“All tenants will have a guaranteed Right to Remain or Return on equivalent terms - This means that tenants will have: The right to move to, or return to, a replacement home in the new development should they wish to do so and that the new home will have”. The subsequent text in this section remained unchanged.

Given the high percentage of tenant support for the commitments and EQIA findings, the Cabinet Member proposed the revised Estate Renewal Rehousing and Payments Policy for adoption.

In response to questions from Councillor Engert and Councillor Brabazon the following was noted:

• Where a site in an estate was agreed for demolition that included a supported housing block / specialist accommodation, it may not be always be possible to rebuild the same specialist housing on the site. The proposed policy did reaffirm the offer of a Right to Return to the site, with appropriate floating support, or, if preferred, priority to move to the nearest appropriate specialist accommodation. It may also be the case that specialist supported housing is being built on a later phase of the scheme and access to this housing may also be possible. The Council were in agreement that it was important to provide replacement specialist supported homes, and it was a question of phasing and what works according to the care needs of the tenant.

• There was an existing Council Allocations Policy, applicable for all Council tenants who were under-occupying, which says they can retain a spare room when they voluntarily downsize, if they have 2 or more spare rooms. This policy is in place to encourage residents to downsize to make more homes available for families in the borough. However, on estate renewal schemes the Council is aiming to meet the needs of existing and new tenants on the estate. For example, if there are tenants living in an overcrowded home they would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 81