Issue - meetings

The Committee at its meeting in March considered a report from the Head of Private Sector Housing, which provided an overview of the measures being developed to bring vacant private sector housing back into use.  Whilst discussing the report concern was raised that the part time status and salary bracket for the vacant Empty Homes Officer did not reflect the needs of the role and the Committee requested an update on the recruitment for this post.  The Head of Private Housing has confirmed that it has been placed on hold temporarily whilst ongoing work takes place with Human Resources. Reflecting the Committee’s concerns it has been agreed that the post should be full time and in addition the job specification is being reviewed to increase the attractiveness of the post.

In the absence of an Empty Homes Officer progress has still been made, with questionnaires sent to half the owners of vacant homes.

Proposal

The Committee is asked to note the update.

At it’s meeting in March 2010 the Committee considered a report from the Head of Private Sector Housing which provided an overview of the measures being developed to bring vacant private sector housing into use.  Discussion at the meeting included concerns that the part time status and salary bracket of the vacant Empty Homes Officer post was inappropriate.  The Head of Private Sector Housing confirmed that the recruitment of the post would therefore be put on hold pending further discussion with Human Resources. 

Following the concerns raised by the Committee it was agreed that the post would become a full time position and a review of the job specification was taking place to increase the attractiveness of the post.

Cllr Jon Brady, Cabinet member for Housing and Cllr Howard Greenman, Portfolio member for Housing, attended the meeting to answer any questions arising from the item.

Members of the Committee expressed concern that a time-line had not been set to recruit to the post and that the recruitment process did not seem to indicate the appropriate priority members felt the post required.

Clarification was provided that strict recruitment protocols existed which dictated the speed of the process but that an existing member of the Housing team had been appointed on a part-time basis to action part of the role.

The Committee requested that the concerns raised over the recruitment process be noted and that the Senior Scrutiny Officer should continue to monitor the situation and provide future updates.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet and Portfolio Holder for their attendance.

Resolved:

1)         That the Committee had noted the update provided but with great concern over the speed to which recruitment to the Empty Homes Officer post was taking place.

2)         That the concerns of the Committee will also be fed into the Overview and Scrutiny Organisational and Resources Select Committee.