Decision details

Part 3, Schedule 3 – Responsibility for Executive Functions delegated to Officers paragraph 4.3 (1) – the Corporate Director has delegated authority to discharge executive functions within their respective service areas (Part 3.38). All delegations are subject to consultation where considered appropriate in the circumstances (paragraph 4.3 (4(ii) – Part 3.39). The Corporate Director (Operational Services) has delegated operational matters relating to the running of the Housing service to the Head of Housing

The decision is to waive the normal processes for allocating secure tenancies to enable the displaced tenants of Honeycroft to be granted a secure tenancy at a different address. In October tenants of the main building were asked to move out in response to a risk of legionella within the water system. All tenants were successfully relocated, mostly to other Council properties. Their tenancies currently remain at Honeycroft but some have expressed a desire to remain in the accommodation they were moved temporarily to. Housing Benefit can be claimed for up to 13 weeks where someone is absence from their normal address. From the week commencing 22 January, it will be necessary to end the Honeycroft tenancies to ensure that the tenants can continue to claim their benefit entitlement. This will apply equally to those that do not wish to remain in the accommodation in the longer term and those that do. It is proposed that those who do not wish to remain in the accommodation in the longer term will be granted a secure tenancy at their temporary address and a further secure tenancy at the address they eventually move to at an appropriate time in the future. Normal policy would require a tenant to make a housing register application and wait to be allocated alternative accommodation when it becomes available but in the circumstances this has not been possible and is not appropriate

As the tenants of Honeycroft will have been allocated alternative accommodation without going through the usual Housing Register application process this could be challenged by others who are on the Housing Register. This decision is separate to the current consultation on the permanent closure of the scheme but given the timescales involved and the level of works required to mitigate the legionella risk, it is unrealistic that the tenants will be able to return to the scheme before a final decision on its future is made. The alternative option is to require the tenants to make an application to join the Housing Register. This would put them at risk of losing their Housing Benefit entitlement and would go against the commitment given to support them through the process.