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HOUSING COMMITTEE |
Agenda Item 36(b)
Brighton & Hove City Council |
Subject: Questions
Date of Meeting: 17 November 2021
Report of: Executive Lead Officer for Strategy, Governance & Law
Contact Officer: Name: Shaun Hughes Tel: 01273 293059
E-mail: shaun.hughes@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Wards Affected: All
1. SUMMARY AND POLICY CONTEXT:
1.1 To receive any questions submitted to Democratic Services.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS:
2.2 That the Committee responds to the questions.
3. Questions:
3.1 Ellen Musgrove (Acorn)
Question:
"After several meetings with ACORN over the past year, councillors and officers said they were committed to landlord licensing. Then before September's housing committee meeting the Private Sector Housing Update Report did not recommend pursuing landlord licensing schemes without anyone contacting ACORN to say the strategy had changed. Then bizarrely the administration voted to amend its own report to say the council was still committed to landlord licensing. Can the committee explain why this happened, who is responsible for this failure, and how can renters trust the council when they backtrack on commitments like this?"
3.2 Daniel Harris
Question:
How much revenue in rent do you get from the government for Housing Benefit payments for those listed in emergency and Temporary Accommodation? of that payment how much does the council keep? & how much goes to other sources? can you let us know were: private sector etc. (All sources of income.
Finally, can you list all of the Grants and funding bids the council has received in the last 5 years including a figure for each year? (All sources of income).
3.3 David Thomas
Question:
SWEP. Emergency should never be a secret. Please advise how SWEP is meant to work this year now there is no public involved and no public notifications.
3.4 Charles Harrison
Question:
"The recent Kerslake report highlighted that poor housing has wide-ranging impacts, making significant demands on many Council Departments and Support Organisations. It also called for an increase in the supply of Social Housing.
However, the national supply of suitable social housing falls well short of the 90.000 new homes at social rent needed every year, as called for in the UK Government “Building More Social Housing” Report.
What progress has the Council made in achieving its target to build more new Council homes and in reducing the unit build cost towards the £167k average cost per unit for the SE region, as identified in the UK Government Consultation “Use of receipts from Right to Buy sales?"
3.5 Jim Deans
Question:
“Recent commissioned reports and guidance from government are showing the need for Social Housing, the lack of is featuring high as a cause of many physical and mental illness. Can the Health and Well-being Board support a plan to build Social Homes and reduce the burden on local services including the NHS?”
3.6 Jackie Strube & Ian Macintyre (Hanover Action)
Question:
Having just completed our B&H Carbon Reduction Fund supported Hanover Action project on Greening Hanover Homes, together with the Low Carbon Trust, see
https://hanover-action.org.uk/home/taking-action/greening-hanover-homes/
we would like to submit the following question for next week's Housing Committee please:
"Hanover Action welcomed the budget amendment in 2020 to create a £2.6 million warmer homes budget and its subsequent doubling to an investment of £5.2 million in 2021/22 for support towards the councils’ ambitious carbon neutral 2030 goal. We are concerned to read in the report “carbon reduction in housing” at housing committee that only “up to £400,000” of this budget is likely to be spent in 21/22. Given we are facing a climate emergency we believe that using this resource to help provide warmer homes with a lower carbon footprint should be a priority and we ask that the committee explain the delay and provide members of the public with a timetable setting the expected stages up to an estimated date by which the budget will be fully spent?"