Agenda item

[Report of the Director for  Housing Growth. To be introduced by the  Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal.]

To consider Revisions to Haringey's Housing Strategy, including proposed amendments to appendices.

The Leader invited Mr Nicolson to put forward his deputation to the Cabinet.

Mr Nicolson was representing the TAG[Temporary Accommodation Group] Love Lane resident’s group and putting forward their concerns about: the future demolition of the Love Lane estate, their rights as residents in temporary accommodation, the need for permanent housing with affordable rent and how the development of the estate was taking place around them, causing distress.

The Sedley principles were referred to and the deputation were seeking an assurance that any consultation on the ‘Landlord Offer’ on Love Lane estate would follow these principles and that all families in temporary accommodation on Love Lane estate would be allowed to respond to the consultation, and to vote in any related ballot and would be moved into permanent accommodation.

The TAG Love Lane group was seeking accommodation that was both permanent and affordable. The group was concerned that Councillors had not given due consideration to:

• The circumstances of the 172 homeless families whom the Council had moved into temporary accommodation in the Love Lane estate, after the permanent tenants were moved out, and who were likely to be moved on yet again before demolition. It was not felt right for one family to already have been moved three times in the past nine months or for children to be moving homes, schools and friends six or seven times throughout ten years of their education. The deputation party felt that one move into decent temporary accommodation ought to be enough. Being moved into a noisy building site only to be moved off it again was compulsory move too many.

• The damage to the health and well-being of low-income families caused by significant increased rents as these families would likely need to move out of £90 a week for two bed Council rented accommodation to take private rented permanent accommodation at a minimum of £300 a week in N17 or £400 in N6. This was being done under the threat of "intentional homelessness". The deputation asserted that the Council paying the difference to landlords for four years did not result in permanent secure affordable accommodation for a career teacher or nurse or anyone else seeking to move to a community

The deputation further contended that none of the definitions of affordable housing in Appendix C was truly affordable. It was not only the rent that mattered but consideration should also be given to the health and wellbeing of low-income families and the minimum household income must be enough to buy a healthy diet, water, fuel, clothes, transport, participation in the community and other necessities, after the rent, Council and income taxes are paid.

The deputation referred to the new London Living rent policy being developed by the Mayor of London, which was one third of local rents, in which Council tax must be included if it is not abolished. The deputation spoke about the remaining two thirds of income being equally important and considered in the development of this policy. The remaining two thirds must be enough to buy a healthy diet, water, fuel, clothes, transport, participation in the community and other necessities. The necessary research about human needs was available from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and distributed to the Council.

The deputation explained that if a family takes on housing benefit simultaneously with being forced into private sector rents then their rents can push the family’s benefits over the government’s £442.31 a week London benefit cap, leaving rent unpaid and to be paid out of that vital two thirds of income needed for essentials. That, and everything else about the circumstances of tenants in temporary accommodations, was profoundly unfair.

The Cabinet Member for Civic Services invited a member of the deputation to outline his experiences.

A member of the deputation party spoke from personal experience of living on Love Lane estate for the past 3 years and they perceived there to be a lack of transparency, by the Council on what the future holds for them, post demolition. This uncertainty was causing health issues, stress and anxiety as they had yet to receive a guarantee of permanent accommodation, post demolition. The consultation on the Landlord offer had yet to even start and this was previously promised in October.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal wanted to hear from the members of the deputation that lived on the Love Lane estate and offered them the opportunity to ask her questions.

The current uncertainty on permanent accommodation and the demolition works taking place in the outside space was further reiterated. A member of the deputation spoke from personal experience about the conditions her family were living in. This was especially difficult with two older children studying for GCSE’s whilst living in TA, and living on a demolition site .This situation had ruined the mental health of her family, and they were suffering through the uncertainty of not having a home. The deputation member highlighted that a majority of people living in temporary accommodation, on the Love Lane estate, worked but were on low incomes. If they were moved to private accommodation with higher rents, there was no hope to give their children of a better home and quality of life.

The Cabinet Member responded and noted that there will be a process followed for the ballot. Officers would explain the detail of this. The Cabinet Member appreciated that the deputation highlighted the stark housing issues that people in London face and which was  due to the of impact of a housing crisis .The Cabinet Member acknowledged this situation and commented on the many people coming to her surgery with similar issues or living in temporary or overcrowded accommodation. The Cabinet Member further commented on the high number of one-bedroom properties in the borough which were housing families of up to 4 and 5 people which she understood could not be acceptable. There were currently over 50,000 homeless households in London living in temporary accommodation, and around 3,000 of those were Haringey households.

The Cabinet Member described the mismatch between the demand and supply for social rented housing. This situation meant that households in Band B and where a housing duty was accepted, were waiting for significant periods to obtain permanent housing. The Cabinet Member explained that in Haringey some families were waiting for a 3-bedroom property for up to 11 years and she understood the detrimental impact this could have on schooling and family life.

The Cabinet Member outlined that the only way to address this mismatch was by building more social rented homes. This was why the Council was committed to providing 1,000 new Council homes and seeking to increase the number of affordable and social rented homes.

There were decisions being made to tackle this issue, including the changes to the Housing Strategy and the plans for housing delivery via the Wholly Owned Company. Although, it was accepted that the promise of 1000 new social homes was not enough, it was important to start somewhere. The Cabinet Member further reiterated her commitment to deliver 1000 homes and provide safe and secure temporary accommodation.

The Interim Director for Housing, Planning and Regeneration advised the deputation that the Council did not push ahead with the Love Lane ballot in October as there was more time needed to talk to residents on the estate and improve the offer. The ballot would likely take place early next year to allow these early discussions and conversations .The Council were further seeking to obtain additional funding and so it could improve that offer to local people. She advised that the consultation included residents living in temporary accommodation and they would have a say in the ballot. She reiterated that the Council would work with the tenants to make a proper local offer.

The Leader thanked the deputation party for putting forward their representations

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Renewal continued to introduce the Cabinet report which put forward revisions to the Haringey's Housing Strategy, including proposed amendments to appendix C and deletion of appendix D.

The administration had been elected in May on a manifesto that recognised the importance in Housing and set out 5 pledges including: 1000 new Council homes, a review of planning targets, ensuring housing is genuinely affordable, expanding the landlord licensing scheme, ensuring that new housing for sale was available to Haringey residents first, and to reduce homelessness in Haringey by 2022.

The two key pledges being focused on in this report was housing affordability and Council social rents.

The Cabinet Member outlined that the Council had last published a Housing Strategy in 2016. Since then, as well as having a new administration with new priorities and ways of working, there had been important changes to Housing policy at the national and regional level, which the existing strategy was increasingly out of touch with.The Government had abandoned a number of its most contested proposed housing policies and there has been a renewed focus on social housing prompted in part by the Grenfell tragedy. There had been a further lifting of the HRA borrowing cap and significant funding from the GLA for Council housing to transform and develop this.

It was necessary to make changes to appendix C to reflect the preference of the administration on affordability and social rented homes. The conversation on a new overall Council Housing strategy would continue, but in meantime there was a need to make changes to appendix to deliver some of the commitments as soon as possible.

In response to questions from the Leader, Cllr Barnes and Cllr Gordon, the following information was noted:

• The Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal fully agreed with the Leader on the commitment to the housing target of 50 % affordable on housing developments and the split of 70% social rented and 30% intermediate. It was her understanding that this target was the direction of travel but that there would need to be a separate statutory planning process followed, in order to achieve that. There were decisions that could be made today to the policy for consultation such as changes to the Housing mix and the document more fully demonstrating the Council’s preferences for social rents, to Council tenancies and London affordable rent.

• The Cabinet Member appreciated the concern that there was not reference to this manifesto and previously scrutiny recommended affordable housing target, included in appendix C. However, it was not presently legally and practicably possible to include this target as this would need to be agreed through the Local Plan and Tottenham AAP and the timelines for this were separate. It was important to make the amendments that could be completed currently and gain the benefits of this for residents.
• The Assistant Director for Planning confirmed that the Housing affordability target of 50% could not be changed through Housing Strategy as this could only be done through a review of the Local Plan. This would be a long process and would require compilation of an evidence base that could satisfy the Planning inspector that the affordability target was deliverable. The Planning service were gearing up to complete this review. However, they could not begin this process until the London Mayor has adopted the London Plan in October 2019. The current draft London Plan did include the 50% affordable housing figure and if adopted by the Mayor, would supersede the Council’s target. The Council were looking to review the Local Plan to make this and other changes. However, due to the statutory nature of the process with required consultations, a revised Local plan would not be ready for implementation until at least 2021.
• Further to a clarification sought by the Leader, the Assistant Director for Planning agreed that, should the 50% affordable target be agreed by the Mayor in October 2019, then the Council could also implement this new increased target before 2021.
• The Cabinet Member confirmed that the target of 1000 new homes did not include the replacement homes that would be built on Broadwater Farm and would be a net gain.
• In relation to ending street homelessness, there was a need to have clear aspiration and work with partners to achieve this. It was accepted that this was not an easy task to achieve but there was a need to set a clear target .The Managing Director for Homes for Haringey spoke about the challenge of street homelessness and outlined that this was more related to multi agency support to the individual rather than housing provision as there were the required beds available in the borough to house homeless people. The Council would also be completing a count of the number of homelessness people in the borough, in the coming weeks.

RESOLVED

1. To note the proposed changes to Appendix C of the Housing Strategy set out at appendix 1 of this report, and the deletion of Appendix D of the Housing Strategy.

2. To agree to officers conducting a consultation exercise on the proposed changes and deletion, as detailed at paragraph 6.36.

3. To note the proposed direction for a new Housing Strategy for Haringey, and the proposed process for developing the new strategy, as detailed at paragraph 6.29.

Reasons for decision

Haringey’s Housing Strategy 2017-2022 was adopted in November 2016. Since then there have been significant changes to national and regional housing policy, as discussed at paragraphs 6.7-6.12 below.

Haringey’s administration was elected in May 2018 on a manifesto, which included a number of housing commitments, including:

• delivering 1,000 Council homes for families on the Council’s waiting list
• bringing 95% of Council homes up to decent homes standard
• expanding the landlord licensing scheme
• aiming to end street homelessness

In addition, decisions taken since May 2018 have fundamentally altered the Council’s approach to housing, notably:

• The decision not to proceed with the Haringey Development Vehicle
• The decision to set up a wholly owned company to help deliver 1,000Council homes at Council rents

This means that the existing strategy, adopted in November 2016, is no longer a good fit with the ambitions of the new administration and there is a need to produce a new strategy to better reflect these. In advance of the development, consultation, and publication of this new housing strategy, it is proposed that Appendix C of the existing strategy is amended and Appendix D deleted to ensure the Council’s housing policy framework reflects this changed environment, and the Council’s new priorities.

Alternative options considered

An alternative option would be not to develop a new housing strategy. This was rejected since the local, regional and national context has changed to the extent that aspects of the former strategy have been rendered out of date.

Another alternative option is to develop a new housing strategy but not to amend Appendix C and delete Appendix D of the existing strategy. This was rejected since amending, and deleting, the appendices allows certain changes to take effect sooner, and because the Housing Strategy 2017-2022 was deliberately drafted in order to allow for these appendices to be amended during the course of the strategy so as to account for policy changes.