Agenda item

Tim Clarke (Head of Housing and Environmental Health) will be in attendance to provide the Committee with an update in regards to the future use of Spendells House, Walton-on-the-Naze.

This review is under the provisions of Procedure Rule 13. The Committee may question members of the Cabinet and Officers and seek the views of local stakeholders and/or other interested parties. Cabinet must take into account any recommendations expressed by this Committee when determining the final decision on this matter.

[Note: The inclusion in its work programme of a review of the Spendells proposed capital scheme and the contribution the scheme is intended to make to address homelessness was referred by this Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) on 8 January 2020 to the Community Leadership OSC on 13 January 2020 (Minute 87 refers).]

*Report to follow.

Further to the decision of the Committee on 16 December 2019 (Minute 39 refers), the Committee was scheduled to undertake an enquiry into a forthcoming decision of the Cabinet in relation to the future use of the Spendells House, Walton-on-the-Naze.  This was in accordance with the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 13.

A briefing note prepared by the Council’s Head of Housing and Environmental Health (Tim Clarke) was circulated at the meeting (having been emailed to Members earlier that day).  The Head of Housing and Environmental Health introduced the report.

Councillor P Honeywood, Portfolio Holder for Housing, was welcomed to the meeting for this item.

The Committee was informed that the closure of Spendells House as a Sheltered Housing Scheme in March 2018 had been an inevitable but unfortunate consequence of low demand and occupancy for this type of accommodation outside of town centres. Whilst it had remained empty only basic maintenance and security provision had been in place. Overall the building remained in good condition and provided a good basis for development of the site for use as temporary accommodation for those who were homeless. The Committee was further informed that the options that had been explored for the future use of the site had focused on either outright disposal or re-purposing to provide alternative housing provision such as the temporary accommodation scheme now proposed.

With homelessness levels showing no signs of reducing (both nationally and locally) temporary accommodation costs could be reduced by taking action to generate additional supply of temporary accommodation either via the private sector or by the Council directly.

Given the projected demand for accommodation, it was inevitable that there would be a need for Bed and Breakfast accommodation unless the supply of less costly options became available. Therefore Officers were now exploring the cost of bringing Spendells House back into use as temporary accommodation for those who were homeless.

Members were informed that the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA18) came into force in April 2018 with the aim of reducing homelessness. The act increased duties on local authorities to assess an applicant's needs and to prevent and relieve homelessness by:

• Improving advice and information about homelessness and the prevention of homelessness;

• Extending the period of threatened with homelessness from 28 days to 56 days. An applicant is now assessed as threatened with homelessness if they are likely to become homeless within 56 days.

• Introducing new duties to prevent and relieve homelessness for all eligible people, regardless of priority need and intentionality.

• Introducing assessments and personalised housing plans, setting out the actions housing authorities and individuals will take to secure accommodation.

• Encouraging public bodies to work together to prevent and relieve homelessness through a duty to refer.

Despite the extra advice and duties brought in by the Homelessness Reduction Act, the lack of affordable housing and private rented properties had meant that the use of temporary accommodation had increased.

In 2013/14 temporary accommodation placements had cost the Council £22,368 whereas by 2018/19 the cost had increased to £459,265.  Unless the Council used its own housing stock the cost of temporary accommodation over that covered by Housing Benefit subsidy had to be covered by the General Fund.

Following the verbal update Members were given the opportunity to ask questions.

In considering the expectations of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 13 for the Committee to fully enquire into a proposed decision of the Cabinet, the extent of the information now provided, the intended date for the Cabinet to determine this matter (20 March) and the date of this Committee’s next meeting (23 March), the Chairman informed the Committee of the options available to it as he saw them:

1)    Request that Cabinet delay their decision in order for the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee to conduct a pre decision scrutiny; or

2)    Conduct a post Cabinet decision scrutiny.

Following discussion, it was RESOLVED that the Committee would authorise the Chairman of the Committee to liaise with Officers and the Portfolio Holder for Housing to arrange for plans, information on costs and the arrangement of a site visit in order to undertake the pre-decision enquiry of the future use of the Spendells House, Walton-on-the-Naze.  If such an enquiry was not possible in the available time-frame envisaged in the notice of forthcoming decisions, the Committee would agree not to undertake the enquiry envisaged under Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 13 and, instead, undertake a post scrutiny decision of the item.