Agenda item

Please note that the Housing Topic Scrutiny – Future Housing Strategy Report is being considered by the Housing Task Group on 17 November and any changes made will be reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Reporting Person: Louise Strongitharm

Jon Herbert, Strategic Housing and Development Manager, introduced the report which was the final instalment of the three part review undertaken by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee which would help to develop the Five Year Housing Strategy.  Since the last strategy there had been various changes to government legislation and policies, the priority of the new strategy would be to increase the delivery of affordable housing, utilising the current housing stock and to deliver an improved experience for customers and residents.

Mr Herbert summarised the details of the draft objectives in the report, and advised the Committee of the link between Housing provisions and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy which would be discussed in the near future, and would result in actions to be implemented. 

The viability of affordable housing in planning applications was discussed, Ms Strongitharm advised that 19% of affordable housing was delivered through the Section 106 Agreement, more diverse ways of delivering affordable housing need to be explored such as reviewing land assets for any potential sites that could be developed and to continue to bid for government grants, continue working with Thameswey on private sites and programmes with Housing Associations.

Members felt that the housing demand, with 1,100 people on the Housing Register, would never be met for various reasons including private developers not committing to the delivery of affordable housing as advised in their original proposals.  Cllr Harlow, Portfolio Holder for Housing, advised that not all those on the Housing Register required a property urgently and that they were prioritised into different bands which identified those with the greatest need.  The ageing population and increase of families splitting up affected the needs analysis. Helping the elderly downsize to a more appropriate home for their needs then allows additional homes for families to move into, that are three and four beds.  The number of those of the Woking Borough Council Housing Register would not be viewed as particularly high in comparison to other local authorities, however it was dependent on the Allocations policy.  In Woking the Allocations Policy was strict with who can join the register.  Ms Strongitharm felt that it would be difficult to ever meet the growing need for housing but hoped that the waiting time would reduce, and in the future work towards meeting wider needs.

Data was fed into House Mark, that provided benchmarking figures however the majority of data was held by NVH, and when that service moves in-house it was anticipated that the service could be better utilised. 

During discussion, Ms Strongitharm advised that a resident would be offered a cash incentive to downsize their property and would also be placed in Band B on the register however it was unlikely that someone would move from a three bed house to a one bedroom flat, but it was thought that the offer could be made more appealing to them, such as having a property with a spare bedroom. More research was being conducted in how other authorities reviewed downsizing and what they offered.

The Social Housing White Paper was being reviewed by the Housing Department currently and the Government’s response to the Planning White Paper was also awaited.

For those wishing to purchase via the open market, there were shared ownership schemes available however did come with their own issues.

In order to focus developers on delivering quality properties, an awards scheme could possibly be implemented which would highlight the good quality developments by ranking new build developments using the results of a satisfaction survey.

Following the presentations over the three Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings by the Housing Team, members were encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions with the Chairman and it was agreed that a paper brought to the next meeting of the Committee on 21 December that summarised member feedback on the housing scrutiny topic review.

The Chairman also requested that a small group of Councillors would review three viability case study examples following concerns raised and to understand the rights developers had as it dramatically effects the amount of affordable housing within the borough. The findings would be reported to the meeting in December.

The Chairman thanked officers for the in-depth review and contribution to the Committee over the three meetings.