Agenda item

(Councillor D Stallan – Chairman of Constitution and Members Services Standing Panel) To consider the attached report.

Councillor Stallan introduced the Constitution and Member Services Standing Panel’s report reviewing two aspects of the terms of reference of the Housing Appeals and Review (HAR) Panel.

The first aspect that was reviewed was the order of business for presentation of cases to the Panel. The current order of business for consideration of cases by the Housing Appeals and Review Panel provides for the applicant/appellant to present their case and answer questions first, followed by the appropriate Housing Officer presenting his/her case and answering questions. Whilst this followed the order of most appeal proceedings it was considered that it did not lend itself particularly well to meetings of the Housing Appeals and Review Panel.

As a result, since an applicant/appellant had to present their case first, the HAR Panel felt that many struggled to follow the procedure and present a reasonable case. The Panel has said often that it was not until replies were given to questions from the Housing Officer and members of the Panel that the full extent of the applicant’s/appellant’s case became apparent.

The Panel therefore asked the Standing Panel to consider changing its terms of reference so as to change the order of proceedings, with the Housing Officer presenting his/her case first.

Councillor Smith wanted to know what was the latest time to agree who went first. Councillor Stallan said that no particular time had been stipulated, so it could be up to the time of the meeting. As long as they knew that they had the right to ask for this change before the meeting. In order to help this, a new recommendation 2 could be added saying “That the applicant be informed prior to the meeting of their right to change the order of presentation if wanted”. This was agreed.

The second part to the report dealt with revising the appeals against the banding of an applicant.

Since May 2010, the Panel has considered nine appeals about the banding of an applicant including seven appeals since August 2011. In all cases the Panel had upheld the officers’ decisions and dismissed the appeals. In such cases the role of the Panel was restricted to determining whether an appellant has been placed in the correct Band of the Allocations Scheme by officers having regard to the facts. The majority of these appeals concern priority given for medical conditions and as the Scheme specifies that medical priority is determined by the Council’s Medical Adviser, the Panel had little discretion.

The Housing Appeals and Review Panel have advised that in their view banding appeals should not be dealt with by them and that the right of appeal should end with one of the Assistant Directors of Housing. The Standing Panel agreed with this and on consideration so did the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

            RESOLVED:

(1)        That a report be submitted to the Council recommending that the existing order of proceedings at meetings of the Housings Appeals & Review  Panel be retained but a new paragraph (to be numbered (7)) be added to the Panel’s terms of reference as follows:

“(7)      If requested by the appellant/applicant or their representative, the Chairman may agree to (6)(b)-(d) above taking place after (e)-(g) and to (h) and (i) being reversed”.

and the Constitution amended accordingly;

(2)        That the applicant be informed prior to the meeting of their right to change the order of presentation if wanted, as set out in (1) above;

(3) That the arrangements set out in recommendation (1) above be reviewed after six months; and

(4)       That paragraph 1(i) (relating to the banding of an applicant, in accordance with the Housing Allocations Scheme in being at the time of the decision) be removed from the terms of reference of the Housing Appeals and Review Panel and the Constitution amended accordingly.