Issue - meetings

Verbal Update

The Committee undertook a verbal question and answer session with Cllr Carlin, Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning. The following arose as part of the discussion:

a.    The Committee questioned what the Council was doing to prosecute rogue landlords. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that the introduction of the additional licensing scheme would mean that the Council would be actively going into tenanted properties and carrying out inspections, rather than relying on tenants to make complaints. The Cabinet Member advised that in terms of process, once an enforcement notice was issued, the landlord would have  a specific amount of time to comply with that notice or the Council would then prosecute. The Cabinet Member highlighted the importance of proposed legislative changes to ban no-fault evictions.

b.    The Committee highlighted that it had previously requested that ward councillors be given access to fire safety risk assessments. It was noted that some of the smaller blocks did not have a risk assessment and the Committee sought clarification as to whether these blocks should have a risk assessment carried out. In response, officers agreed that they would undertake a manual exercise to check this and then come back to the Committee with a response. (Action: Judith Page).

c.    The Committee raised concerns about a lack of responses to residents when repairs were reported and suggested that, either housing manger posts were vacant following HfH coming in-house, or that residents did not know how to contact their housing managers. In response, the Cabinet Member acknowdged that each block should have a named housing manager and that she was happy to follow up with officers on the concerns raised. Yvonne agreed to email Cllr Bevan with the specifics (Action: Yvonne Denny). Cllr Carlin agreed to chase up the names of housing managers for each block.  (Action: Cllr Carlin).

d.    The Committee sought clarification about what support the Council offered to those who had been evicted, specifically in terms of the earlier point made around ending no-fault evictions. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that if tenants were evicted against their wishes, then there was specific legal process involved which would require a court order to be obtained. In most cases, residents could contact the Council’s housing needs team, The Cabinet Member advised that if it was a family, the Council could help to pay some of its rent arrears and that in the past the Council had been able to help families secure a tenancy elsewhere in the private sector. If someone was unlawfully evicted, then this would be an enforcement issue and the Council would look to put people in contact with organisations who could support them to take legal action. In relation to single adults, the Cabinet Member acknowledged that the help on offer was limited due to a shortage of temporary accommodation places and the fact that the private rents were very expensive.

e.    The Committee sought an update about where the Council had got to with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20