Issue - meetings

The Committee will be provided with a copy of the final Housing Strategy in preparation for it going to formal consultation.

The strategy has been developed in partnership with key stakeholders including Housing Associations, landlords, developers and tenants, as well as elected members, and has been approved by Cabinet Liaison to commence formal consultation.

The strategy sets out a joint vision for Wiltshire whereby everyone in Wiltshire should be able to live in a decent and safe home they can afford.

The Committee is asked to review and comment upon the 5 year Housing Strategy that sets the priorities and strategic direction for Housing for the next 5 years.

The Committee was provided with a copy of the final Housing Strategy in preparation for it going to formal consultation.

The strategy has been developed in partnership with key stakeholders including Housing Associations, landlords, developers and tenants, as well as elected members, and has been approved by Cabinet Liaison to commence formal consultation.

The strategy sets out a joint vision for Wiltshire whereby everyone in Wiltshire should be able to live in a decent and safe home they can afford.

The Committee  was asked to review and comment upon the 5 year Housing Strategy that sets the priorities and strategic direction for Housing for the next 5 years.

The report was introduced by Cllr Richard Clewer. He explained that it was a Housing Partnership Strategy and that it had 4 main aims of facilitating housing need, making best use of existing house stock, meeting accommodation needs and taking a lead in housing provision. He then referred to committee to the details of the report.

The Chairman invited technical questions about the strategy.

It was asked what was being done to address homelessness. Cllr Clewer explained that work was being done under the housing strategy along with other bodies to offer support. The committee discussed some of the issues regarding homelessness and barriers in offering them support.

Plans to introduce increased charges for those families in social housing owning over £31,000 were queried. Cllr Clewer said the exact details of the plan were not known at this time and that members would have to wait for the final draft of the Housing Bill for answers.

Technical questions were also asked about some of the definitions and percentages listed in the report. Cllr Clewer pointed out that the strategy was going to public consultation and that more of the details would become known at that time.

A further question was raised as to the numbers of empty homes versus those on the waiting list for affordable housing. The Housing Officer explained that Wiltshire Council did all they could to promote effective use of properties and that compared to the rest of the country, the percentages of empty homes was comparatively low.

Finally, there was some criticism of the selling off of Council owned housing, as after questioning Cllr Clewer revealed that “not enough” is made in selling a council home to build another one.

Resolved

To note the final draft of the Wiltshire Council Housing Strategy 2017-2022 along with comments from the committee raised during discussion.

To investigate the establishment of a Re-Commissioning of Housing Service Support Contracts rapid scrutiny exercise to look at the approach to procuring new services.