Agenda item

(Director of Housing) To consider the attached report.

The Panel received a report from the Assistant Director of Housing (Operations) regarding the Review of the Housing Allocations Scheme.

The Council was legally required to have a Housing Allocations Scheme for determining priorities and the procedure followed in selecting a person for accommodation, or nominating a person to be a tenant for accommodation held by another Registered Provider of social housing. In the past, the Cabinet had considered the Council’s Housing Allocations Scheme annually and reviewed any changes. However, the current Scheme had not been reviewed since its introduction in December 2010, this was because the Government guidance “The Allocation of Accommodation: Guidance for local housing authorities in England” was not received until July 2012.

Under the guidance, authorities were given powers to decide locally how accommodation should be allocated based upon local priorities. Authorities were therefore empowered to allocate their accommodation in any way they saw fit, provided schemes were legal and rational.

Due to these additional powers resulting in potentially the most comprehensive review ever undertaken of the scheme, the Portfolio Holder had informal discussions with Cabinet colleagues seeking initial views which gave guidance on how Cabinet members felt the scheme should be drafted officer time. As a result, the Portfolio Holder made a formal decision based on the Cabinet’s initial view that, and subject to the views of the Panel for the next review of the Housing Allocations Scheme, officers draft a scheme on the basis of the proposed principles:

Property Sizes

The Assistant Director drew attention to property sizes. The current property sizes allocated to households under the Council’s current Housing Allocations Scheme were as follows:

(1)   Studio – Single persons

(2)   1 Bedroom – single persons or 2 people without children

(3)   2 Bedrooms – homeseekers with 1 child or homeseekers with 2 children of the same sex

(4)   3 Bedrooms – homeseekers with 2 children of opposite sex or homeseekers with 3 or 4 children

(5)   4 Bedrooms – homeseekers with 4 or more children

(6)   5 Bedrooms – homeseekers with 5 or more children

The changes to Housing Benefit under the Welfare Reform Act 2012 for persons under occupying accommodation in the social rented sector was explained in a leaflet produced by the National Housing Federation which was sent to the Panel and accorded with the LHA criteria for under occupation. Under the changes if a person had more bedrooms than the Government said it needed housing benefit would be reduced. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 specified the criteria, which was that a separate bedroom should be occupied by:

(a)   Each adult couple

(b)   Any other person aged 16 or over

(c)   Two children of the same sex under the age of 16

(d)   Two children under the age of 10 regardless of their sex

(e)   Any other child

(f)     A carer (who did not normally live with the person) if the person or their partner needed overnight care

Under this standard and the bedrooms standard under the overcrowding provisions of the Housing Act 1985 two children aged under 10 years regardless of sex would be expected to share a bedroom, whereas the Council’s current Housing Allocations Scheme allowed an applicant to be allocated a separate bedroom for a child from birth who was of a different sex from its sibling. Furthermore, the Council’s current Housing Allocations Scheme did not allow an applicant to be allocated a separate bedroom for an adult over a certain age, who was sharing with a sibling of the same sex.

It was proposed that the criteria used for property sizes should be amended as follows:

• Children of different sex, where one was 5 years of age or over, should not be expected to share a bedroom
• Generally, two children of the same sex, regardless of age, would be expected to share a bedroom

The Panel’s attention was drawn to the fact that should neither of the bedroom standards be adopted within the scheme, all homeseekers who had two family members of opposite sex under the age of 10 years, would have their housing benefit reduced due to under-occupation at the commencement of their new tenancy.

The Panel therefore agreed to recommend to the Cabinet that the properties allocated in accordance with the new scheme be in line with the LHA standards in order to avoid any new tenant fully having their housing benefit reduced at their tenancy commencement.

The draft Housing Allocations Scheme had been considered and endorsed by an external Legal Advisor.

Applicant’s Right to a Review

Every applicant had the statutory right to request a review of a decision on allocations and informed of the decision on review and the grounds for it. Currently, the Housing Appeals and Review Panel considered cases where applicants have been excluded from the Housing Register. If the Local Eligibility Criteria was agreed by the Cabinet, it was expected that a high number of applicants were likely to request their statutory right to a review. The Constitution and Member Services Scrutiny Standing Panel was therefore being requested to review the Terms of Reference of the Housing Appeals and Reviews Panel to suggest that appeals by applicants be excluded from the Housing Register and be dealt with by officers.

RECOMMENDED:

(1)        That the draft Housing Allocations Scheme be recommended to the Cabinet for approval at its April 2013 meeting;

(2)        That in cases where housing applicants have been excluded from the Housing Register, the Right of Appeal to the Housing Appeals and Review Panel be revoked, with all such statutory reviews dealt with by officers, be recommended to the Cabinet;

(3)        That the Cabinet request the Constitution and Member Services Scrutiny Standing Panel review the Terms of Reference of the Housing Appeals and Review Panel to ensure compliance with Recommendation 2 above;

(4)        That it be recommended to the Cabinet that the “Right to compensation for Improvements” be granted to Flexible Tenancies and that Flexible Tenants be eligible for incentives to downsize for the first seven years of their fixed term including the introductory period; and

(5)        That the new Housing Allocations Scheme be reviewed by this Panel after 12 months’ operation, reporting required changes to the Cabinet.