Agenda item

[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 eligible to get a larger home on a regeneration scheme. However, if an existing tenant on an estate renewal scheme was under–occupying, it would not be appropriate to offer an equal sized home because a key aim of regeneration schemes is to provide a better mix of homes, with more family homes to meet housing need in the borough. The Council did not want to exclude tenants on regeneration schemes from accessing the existing policy as this would still allow them to downsize, but it is also important to make the most of the regeneration schemes to ensure the best use of the new homes to meet need.

• Service charges were already applied to all Homes for Haringey flats, Housing Association flats and to all other affordable flats. By law, landlords can only charge at the cost of the service being delivered and service charges are set according to what services are delivered to a block.

• As set out in the report, the commitments would apply to Council schemes where more than 20 homes would be demolished as well as estate renewal taken forward by the HDV. Therefore, the Member Agreement would need to reflect that and would be published when the decision is finalised.

[Clerk’s note – Councillor Goldberg, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Social Inclusion & Sustainability entered the meeting]

Subject to the slight changes to appendix 3, set out above by the Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning:

RESOLVED

1.    To note the Equalities Impact Assessment at Appendix 1.

2.    To note the contents of the Consultation Report at Appendix 2.

3.    To note the new commitments approved by Cabinet on 13 June 2017 as set out at paragraph 6.9.

4.    To approve the proposal that the implementation date for rehousing priority/status on individual schemes be determined at a local level by the Director of Housing & Growth in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning, as set out in paragraph 6.23 in the attached report and in section 4.1 of the policy.

5.    To approve the inclusion of a set of General Principles in the Policy, as set out in paragraph 6.24, in the report attached, and in section 3 of the policy, which governs how this policy should be implemented.

6.    To approve the creation of an Estate Renewal & Rehousing Payments Discretion Panel, as set out in paras 6.25, in the attached report, and in section 3.2 of the report with delegated power to ensure these principles are applied appropriately on individual cases where the policy may otherwise create an unfair or inequitable outcome. Determining the membership and terms of reference of this panel be delegated to the Director of Housing & Growth in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning.

7.    To approve the changes and clarifications to the draft policy following consultation, as set out in paras 6.21-6.41, in the attached report, in particular the limit on the value of the replacement property where an Equity Loan can be used at 6.39-41.

8.    To approve the final Estate Renewal Rehousing and Payments Policy at Appendix 3.

9.    Councillor Goldberg, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Social Inclusion & Sustainability abstained as he was not present at the meeting during the discussion of this decision.

Reason for decisions

The reason for recommendation 3.4 was to clarify when and how the policy will come into force and to ensure that the rehousing priority is managed so that households in early phases have realistic opportunities to move before further residents are given priority.

The reason for recommendation 3.5 was to set out principles to provide guidance on how the policy should be applied.

The reason for recommendation 3.6 was to ensure that there are structures and processes in place to apply discretion in exceptional circumstances, to ensure fair and equitable outcomes.

The reasons for recommendation 3.7 are set out in paras 6.25-6.41, in the attached report.

Alternative options considered

To retain the existing policy with no change. This was rejected because the current policy is, in effect, no more than a statement of the statutory minimums to which tenants and leaseholders are entitled. It sets out a general aim to achieve the outcomes set out in the draft revised policy, but makes no commitment to these. It leaves any commitments and any additional offers over and above the statutory minimum to be determined on a scheme by scheme basis. This is a legally defensible position but is not one that promotes confidence among residents and as such does little to garner resident support for these proposed estate renewal schemes.

To make the commitments in the proposed policy absolute and not allow individual schemes flexibility to raise the offer. This was rejected because there are some schemes where the circumstances of existing residents will require, and the financial viability will allow, an improved offer.

In the proposed policy, an Equity Loan of up to 40% is provided for those for whom this is not affordable, and Shared Ownership arrangements are offered with the first 40% rent free. Alternative financial arrangements were considered, as were a range of percentages for both the Equity Loan and Shared Ownership offers. Different respondents to the consultation argued for either higher or lower percentages. It was determined that the percentages on which the consultation was based should be retained, to effectively balance deliverability with a firm guarantee that there will be an option that is affordable to all leaseholders allowing them to return to or move to a new home on the estate.