Agenda item

(Housing Portfolio Holder) to consider the attached report (C-019-2018/19).

That the Cabinet seek a bid from the 2019/20 budget for the funding of the Epping Forest Citizens Advice Bureau’s (CAB) two existing full-time Debt Advisors for a further year to be agreed from 1 April 2019 and funded as follows:

(a) £8,400 from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA); and

(b) £33,600 from the General Fund District Development Fund (DDF).

The Housing Portfolio Holder presented a report to the Cabinet advising that the Council currently funded, and had done so for around 3 years, the Epping Forest Citizens Advice Bureau’s (CAB) to provide two Debt Advisors to assist residents in the district with their personal budgeting. However, the Cabinet needed to consider whether it wished to extend this grant funding for a further year. The funding added up to £42,000 per annum, shared between the Housing Revenue Account and the General Fund.

Such advice was very valuable to residents, but also to the Council, as it helped both, keeping rent arrears low and preventing homelessness.

For every person that was prevented from becoming homeless as a result of this debt advice, the charge made to single homeless people accommodated in B&B hotels, that were eligible for housing benefit, was equivalent to around £15,920 per annum. The Council’s Housing Benefit Service was only able to recover the equivalent of around £7,640 per person per annum from the Government. This was because the Government wanted to penalise local authorities who accommodated homeless households in B&B hotels. Therefore, the resultant average cost to the General Fund, through the loss of the B&B subsidy, was around £8,280 per person per annum.

Under the present agreement, the CAB were required to have one Debt Advisor based at the Limes Centre, Chigwell for one half day each week. However, the CAB have extended this service to 2 half days each week, since 37% of the clients they assisted were first seen at the Limes Centre.

Members of Overview and Scrutiny Committee received a presentation from the CAB on the use and outcomes of all the grant funding that they received from the Council, where they learned that in the first 5 months of this year, the CAB Advisors managed debts of around £444,000 and assisted 286 clients. In addition, there were 246 drop-in clients who had face-to-face interviews with the Debt Advisors.  Around 41% of the clients were Council or Housing Association tenants and 18% of all clients were either threatened with homelessness or homeless. The CAB had reported that 308 debt issues were addressed with a total of 1,340 activities being conducted on behalf of their clients.

Based on the risks and benefits above, it was therefore recommended that the Cabinet seek a bid for the 2019/20 budget to fund the Epping Forest CAB for the two full-time Debt Advisors for a further year from 1 April 2019 and funding be split as follows:

(a) £8,400 from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA); and

(b) £33,600 from the General Fund District Development Fund (DDF).

Councillor Mohindra stated that the Council had always been very supportive of the CAB by granting funding to them but he wanted to highlight  to Members that 80% of the funding source would come from the General Fund and therefore to be mindful that this would be competing with other requirements.

Councillor Stavrou stated that the split was weighted that way as to prevent homelessness and homelessness responsibility was a statutory obligation on behalf of local authorities.

Mr Pledger advised that the HRA was ring fenced so that only Council tenants could benefit from HRA funding. Based on the statistics that the CAB have been able to provide to us they were saying that 41% of the clients were Council or Housing Association. Based on the evidence that they had collected they could not advise of the exact split between Council and Housing Association but going forward they would now start to collect this information. Therefore on this occasion we have had to assume that of the 41%, 20% were HRA and 21% General Fund.

Councillor Mohindra stressed that it be made clear to the CAB that future funding would be linked to required statistics. Mr Pledger advised that this had already been made clear to the CAB.

Councillor H Whitbread queried whether the CAB were situated only at the Limes Centre in Chigwell. Mr Pledger advised that they were based in other locations and would cover the whole of the district.

Decision:

That the Cabinet sought a bid from the 2019/20 budget for the funding of the Epping Forest Citizens Advice Bureau’s (CAB) for two existing full-time Debt Advisors for a further year to be agreed from 1 April 2019 and funded as follows:

(a) £8,400 from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA); and

(b) £33,600 from the General Fund District Development Fund (DDF).

Reasons for Decision:

To agree to extend the funding of the CAB’s two existing Debt Advisors for a further year from 1 April 2019, in order to provide support to residents with personal budgeting and debt advice which will assist the Council in controlling rent arrears and preventing homelessness.  

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

The main alternative options appear to be:

1.      Not to agree to extend the funding of the CAB’s two existing Debt Advisors for a further year from 1 April 2019.

2.      To only extend the funding for one CAB Debt Advisor.

3.      To provide funding for more than two CAB Debt Advisors.