Agenda and draft minutes

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RESOLVED: That Councillor S Sandell be appointed as Chair for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

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RESOLVED: That Councillor A Bubb be appointed as Vice-Chair for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Mrs V Spikings.

The notes from the previous meeting held on 1 March 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

There were no matters arising.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member of an item or simply observing the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chair proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business to report.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chair of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before a decision on that item is taken.

There were no Members present under Standing Order 34.

There was no Chair’s correspondence to report.

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Councillor Collop commented that at the last meeting of the Homelessness and Housing Delivery Task Group, it was agreed that the terms of reference would need to be updated and explained the current terms of reference stated that the Group met roughly on a monthly basis, but Councillor Collop advised this was not always the case.

The Assistant Director responded and explained they would be happy to have discussions around the frequency of meetings. He advised changes had been made before to the terms of reference in terms of the scope of what would be covered at the Task Group meetings and asked the Group to consider whether that was still relevant.

The Housing Services Manager referred to the terms of reference and explained the core purpose of the Group was to look at the requirements of the National Rough Sleeper Strategy August 2018 and reminded the Group that a new area had been added to look at the suitability of the strategy.

In response to a question raised by the Chair, Councillor Collop suggested that the Task Group should meet monthly within the winter period but maybe not monthly in the summer months as she felt homelessness was more prevalent in the winter.

The Chair agreed and supported the comments made by Councillor Collop and asked Officers whether this was something which could be accommodated. The Assistant Director confirmed this could be looked into.

AGREED: The Task Group to meet on a monthly basis within the winter months but not in the summer months.

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The Senior Housing Manager presented the Group with a presentation on the current trends and challenges around Homelessness in the Borough. A copy of the presentation is attached.

The Chair thanked the Senior Housing Manager for the informative presentation.

Councillor Collop asked about the Broad Street complex and about the new properties which were going to be built on the North Lynn Industrial Site and the Housing Services Manager explained planning permission was received a few years ago for family temporary accommodation and added they were proceeding with Broadland Housing. She advised there had been some delays around the supply element and the type of construction but confirmed they now had a new supplier and hoped to see some progress on the site early in the new year.

In response to a further question from Councillor Collop, the Housing Services Manager explained she had not got a completion date but confirmed she could bring something back to the next meeting.

In response to questions raised by Councillor Kemp, the Housing Services Manager explained they had a range of temporary accommodation options available and reassured they always worked with families to ensure they were placing them as close as possible to schools to try and help minimise disruption to families but explained they had to balance that with what was available.

The Senior Housing Manager responded to Councillor Kemp’s question in relation to individuals in a cycle of being in accommodation, being evicted then ending up back in emergency accommodation, and explained the organisation Housing First was there to try and help break that cycle. The Senior Housing Manager referred back to the presentation and highlighted to the Group that the success rate was very high at the moment.

Councillor Kemp asked what was being done to assist Care Leavers. The Senior Housing Manager explained they would need to look at them on a case by case basis. He added they would look to put in place a personal housing plan for them and if there were support issues that had arisen during their time in care, they would link them into other services.

In response to Councillor Kemp’s question, Councillor Rust advised the Care Leavers Covenant was yet to go to Full Council and explained it was a framework to look at what could be provided to those people that they knew were currently in care and for those that had left care.

In response to a question raised by Councillor Bubb, the Housing Services Manager explained there would be more data emerging and added they were seeing strong challenges around affordability for people who were in work or relying on a local housing allowance.

Councillor Kemp stated they had the Boost Project in the town which helped young people up to the age of 30 to get jobs and she asked officers running the Boost Project to get in contact with the Nightshelter as they were not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

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The Housing Services Manager introduced the item and explained they currently had a Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy which was coming to an end at the end of 2024. She explained they had recently commenced their review with a view to having a new strategy in place in 2024.

The Senior Housing Manager presented the Group with a presentation which set out the timeline and provided a brief outline with where they were at and how they were planning to take things forward. A copy of the presentation is attached.

The Chair thanked the Senior Housing Manager for the presentation.

The Chair asked if there were many homelessness presentations coming from rural villages and the Senior Housing Manager advised this would be difficult to analyse but explained they did go out to rural locations to verify rough sleepers.

In response to a question raised by Councillor Kemp, the Senior Housing Manager confirmed the King’s Lynn Night Shelter would be included within the review and they had been invited to one of the partner sessions. He went on to explain they were focusing their efforts around single people which was being hosted by the Purfleet Trust. In terms of families they were focussing their efforts on existing housing association tenants and people in temporary accommodation to get the true experience of homelessness to enable them to feed it into their review.

The Chair indicated she liked the idea of working with outside partnerships, especially businesses and explained this could provide options which had not been utilised before.

The Housing Services Manager highlighted to the Group that it was an important point and explained there was an action plan attached to the Strategy which showed the challenges, trends and critically also showed the things which could be done to respond to it and felt this would give businesses the opportunity to see which part of it they could play a part in to help deliver.

Councillor Kemp asked whether derelict homes would be considered for accommodating people and the Housing Services Manager explained they would look at all options and that this could be explored.

In response to a further question raised by Councillor Kemp, the Housing Services Manager explained their area of focus was to try and prevent homelessness in the first instance but where it does occur, to have appropriate solutions to end that homelessness and added that was the focus of their strategy.

Councillor Rust commented that the Council were taking other steps to try to alleviate and address the need for more private rented houses at an affordable rate through the two Housing Companies.

Councillor Bubb commented that the Borough Charity were in a position to help families and explained they had a system in place but they did not get enough of a variety of applications come forward. The Housing Services Manager confirmed they were always signposting people where necessary and where needed to try  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

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The Housing Services Manager explained she had attended an emergency summit alongside Councillor Kemp which was arranged by the District Council’s Network and hosted by Eastbourne Council to talk about the scale of the problem and what was being experienced at local levels particularly around Homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation. She explained an outcome of that meeting was that there was a letter which had been sent by District Council’s to the Chancellor ahead of the Autumn Statement setting out specific asks.

The Housing Services Manager went through the five key asks with the Group. A copy of the letter is attached.

The Housing Services Manager advised their strategy would be focused on what could be done at a local level to respond to the pressures but explained there were structural issues which would need to be addressed at a central government level if they were to change the trends and the challenges. The Housing Services Manager confirmed the Leader of the authority had signed the letter which had gone off to the Chancellor.

To be arranged.

To be arranged.