Agenda item

To receive a report from Head of Homes 4 Wiltshire, Laura Young.

Laura Young Head of Homes 4 Wiltshire introduced her report which was written in response to questions raised by the Area Board.

Homes 4 Wiltshire was launched in March 2009 to coincide with the unification of the five councils and its aim is to allocate housing fairly. The Homes 4 Wiltshire policy states that “in some rural locations, further local connection restrictions may apply”, and this is due to the requirements contained within planning policy.  The West Wilts local plan allows for two types of local connection restrictions.

1. Rural Exception Sites where a local connection would need to be demonstrated.
2. Village Policy Limits which enables Homes 4 Wiltshire to allocate certain properties to those who can demonstrate a local connection.

 Laura explained the local connection as being one or more of the following:-

·        The applicant has a permanent job there

·        The applicant has lived in the area

·        There is a connection by way of family – a parent, grand parent, sibling or child. (all must be over 18)

·        There are special circumstances, for example, a long term need to receive specialist health care, education or support services that are only available in that area.

Councillor Swabey asked how many people have been waiting for over a year to be housed in the surrounding 5 villages – Laura would respond to this when she was able to gather the figures.

Councillor Cuthbert-Murray sought further clarification over the figures quoted in paragraph 4.2 of the report.  Laura explained that 51% of people housed to the Westbury Community Area were either already living in Westbury or had a local connection.  35% had been living in a surrounding town or village, 7% were living in Wiltshire, 4 % outside of Wiltshire and 3% were of no fixed abode.  Councillors asked Laura for a brief explanation of the banding system,

Platinum – Exceptional circumstances e.g. homeless, urgent medical need, flee due to harassment.

Gold +  – Meeting multiple criteria from the lower bands.

Gold – High need e.g. lacking 2 bedrooms, high medical or welfare need, those threatened with homelessness.

Silver – Medium housing need, including medium medical or welfare need, lacking 1 bedroom, sharing facilities with non household members.

Bronze – Those applicants adequately housed but have a desire to move.  Also includes those financial capable or home owners.

Councillor Cuthbert-Murray enquired how long it would take if you were in the Bronze allocation band to be housed.  Laura replied that it would take a very long time.  Councillor Cuthbert-Murray explained that the only way anyone in Bronze would be successful with bidding is on new developments, however he felt that the numbers allocated to Bronze is too low and should be increased.  Laura explained that properties have to be allocated primarily to those in the highest need and highlighted the fact that there are often homeless families living in one room of a hostel who would disagree that those considered to be living in adequate accommodation should be considered above them more regularly.

Laura explained that there were 12030 applicants registered for affordable housing, of which 1902 expressed a preference for Westbury.  However, only 155 houses have been advertised since 1 April 2009 to date.

Councillor Hawker asked whether ethnicity had any influence within the allocation process. Laura replied that it did not.  Councillor Hawker commented that he understood that the system was based on need but that demand clearly outweighed supply.

The Chairman thanked everyone for their input.