Agenda item

To receive a briefing from Executive Members of the People Portfolio areas of work: Housing & Support, Benefits, Intervention, Leisure, and Community Partnerships, and to consider any issues that arise.

Members received briefings from the People Portfolio Holders overseeing five areas of the Council’s work – Housing and Support, Benefits, Intervention, Leisure, and Community Partnerships.

The presentations from each of the Executive Members / Portfolio Holders were published on the Council’s website as part of the Committee’s agenda pack which can be viewed here:

Agenda for Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, 25th January, 2024, 7.30 pm | Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (moderngov.co.uk)

Several advance questions had been submitted regarding the Portfolio Holder Updates. The advance questions and responses can be viewed here:

Document Advance Questions and Answers OS 25 January 2024 | Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (moderngov.co.uk)

Councillor Neame, Portfolio holder for Housing and Support, gave an overview of the Council’s work in this area.

Housing Services includes Homelessness, Housing Options, Housing Register including Choice Based Lettings, Refugee and Asylum Seeker accommodation and Housing Delivery.

Councillor Neame reported that homeless applications are increasing, and the number of households in emergency accommodation are increasing; the Housing team are successfully preventing more households becoming homeless.

It is becoming more difficult to secure affordable private rented accommodation for applicants, although the news in the Autumn Statement that the Local Housing Allowance will be increasing in April 2024 will go some way to improve this.

The Home Office procuring hundreds of beds for Asylum Seekers in the borough has and remains a significant challenge for the team – they are effectively a new cohort of homeless applicants.

The Housing team have been able to increase in numbers to help manage the challenges, and this strong and experienced team are committed to enabling good outcomes for vulnerable households.

The Executive has approved over £6million pounds of spend to increase local temporary accommodation which will benefit applicants. The Social Housing Down Sizer scheme which went live in November 2023, has already lined up 3 downsizers freeing up 3 family homes to be offered to homeless households.

The Portfolio Holder invited Members to ask questions on the presentation. In response, the following clarifications were provided:

Asylum Seekers

Members asked several questions relating to asylum seekers. It was confirmed that currently a good level of funding was received from Government to house asylum seekers that had received positive immigration decisions that were presenting as homeless when leaving local Home Office hotel accommodation; confirmation of next year’s funding had not yet been received and had not been confirmed for the current year until June 2023. The Council was also awaiting confirmation that any unused funding could be rolled over to next year. The contracts for this type of Home Office accommodation were between the hotels and the Home Office, with no direct relationship between hotels and the Council. Once asylum seekers receive a positive immigration decision and change status to refugees, they leave the hotel accommodation and can approach the Council for homeless assistance or secure their own accommodation independently. Some refugees move closer to relatives and friends in other areas, some present to the Council as homeless and others are assisted to find private rented accommodation across the United Kingdom; Government grants are in place to assist this work.

It was confirmed that grants received for transitioning asylum seekers to refugee status covered the costs. It was also confirmed that in order for refugees to qualify for the housing register they must meet the criteria detailed in the Council’s Housing Register and Allocations policy that can be found on the RBBC website, these include living in the borough for at least three years continually at the time of application, and nomination or working in the borough continually for at least 12 months at the time of application and nomination. The period of residency would start when the applicant became a Refugee and living in the borough is the “residence of choice”, not when the Government places them here. The Head of Housing agreed to confirm this after the meeting.

Those on the housing register with refugee status could not be identified separately, as once they receive the “leave to remain” and therefore access to public funds, they have the same rights as any other resident.

Rough sleepers

It was confirmed that Renewed Hope Trust Night Shelter has ten bed spaces. When the forecast temperature falls to 0°C or below, according to the Met weather forecast, for three nights, the severe weather emergency protocol is triggered, and emergency accommodation is offered to all local rough sleepers. It was confirmed that the Council is aware of rough sleepers and works with outreach workers to engage with these residents, although some were reluctant to engage. An annual count of rough sleepers takes place in November on one single night and the count in November 2023 was six.

Homelessness

It was confirmed that the Homelessness Reserve was just under £1million. This reserve would be used if homelessness grants fell short of covering costs.

In Council-owned emergency accommodation staff are in place to help to manage issues and concerns with residents. Every aspect of the life of homeless applicants is reviewed and help is offered, although applicants cannot be forced to accept help.

It was confirmed that the proposed support scheme would provide supported emergency accommodation for single adults with a degree of need, but not high complex needs.

It was confirmed that the £6million investment in temporary and emergency accommodation had been funded by the Council, not Government grants, although Government funding had been used in addition to this investment; once property had been purchased, Homes England funding could be applied for.

Affordable social housing

It was confirmed that the Council was working with Raven Housing Trust on a new build project for affordable housing. In addition, temporary accommodation was being purchased, Council assets were being reviewed to consider their use and the possibility of repurposing, and the downsizers project was underway.

It was confirmed that the limited amount of affordable social housing was a nationwide issue and that initiating new building schemes was challenging.

A visiting member requested information on the amount of the £30million Council aspiration to spend on affordable social housing that had been spent to date. A written answer would be supplied.

Councillor Neame, Portfolio holder for Housing and Support, gave an overview of the Council’s work on Benefits.

Housing Benefit and Local Council Tax Support are statutory services provided by the council. Around 5,000 households are receiving Housing Benefit and a similar number receive Local Council Tax Support. The combined expenditure on these schemes is £33million – most of the Housing Benefit costs are reimbursed by the Government.

Discretionary Housing Payments provide extra help to households paying rent, and the funding for this year is £183K, which is provided by the Government.

In the last 12 months the service has dealt with over 3,000 new claims and processed over 40,000 changes in circumstances to all claims.

Many households now claim Universal Credit, but a proportion of households remain under the Housing Benefit scheme – these include pensioner households, supported housing and temporary housing.

Local expenditure has risen in recent years on supported housing, which is where the Council will not always receive 100% of the funding back from central Government, and this is a situation being seen at a national level.

Councillor Neame, Portfolio holder for Housing and Support, gave an overview of the Council’s work on Intervention.

Intervention covers three areas, the Family Support Programme, the Money Support Programme, and Refugee Resettlement.

There has been a large increase in referrals for family support, as well as an increase in more complex needs, meaning that more time is spent with each family.

The Money Support team have been working hard to keep the average length of time between 8-10 weeks.

There has been good success with the refugee resettlement programmes, however there can be difficulties in identifying suitable longer term accommodation in the private rented sector.

The Portfolio Holder invited Members to ask questions on the presentation. In response, the following clarifications were provided:

Family Support Programme

It was confirmed that the large increase in referrals was due in part to poor mental health and police referrals for domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour. The Family Support Team consists of 9½ members of staff, although there was currently a 0.5 Whole Time Equivalent vacancy, with each officer dealing with ten cases; there were currently 94 cases. Families waiting to join the support programme were contacted at least every 3 weeks to re-evaluate their case, which allowed for re-prioritisation and signposting to partner organisations.

It was confirmed that several issues had arisen with family sponsorship of refugees; dedicated staff worked with sponsors, sourced alternative sponsors, and assisted refugees in moving to private rented accommodation within and outside the area ensuring that the guests were not disadvantaged.

Councillor Biggs, Leader of the Council, introduced the presentation on the Council’s work on Leisure. He explained that the Portfolio Holder for Communities, Leisure and Culture had stepped down from his position and that the responsibilities had been shared between other Executive Members.

The Leader invited Members to ask questions on the presentation. In response, the following clarifications were provided:

Youth Services

The Leader confirmed that the Council works closely with the YMCA and is relaunching its Get Connected programme to collaborate between partners working to support young people. Work with the YMCA was currently underway to convert a bus into a travelling youth club and the Council supports a wide range of youth services by providing accommodation. School holiday activities were provided, and work was underway to provide a wider range of activities.

Autism-friendly venues

It was confirmed that challenges such as autism and dementia were considered when providing leisure activities, with leisure centres being accessible and welcoming to all needs. A written response would be provided with more detail of the provisions provided.

Star for a Night

It was confirmed that the Star for a Night programme had been affected by the closure of the Harlequin Theatre, however, the Council was currently working on alternative arrangements, which would result in the event being held later than usual in the year.

Arts

It was confirmed that the theatre team were working creatively and quickly to develop an alternative programme of events, while the Harlequin Theatre is closed.

GLL

It was confirmed that the Council was aware of residents’ complaints regarding the GLL booking system for classes and would continue to work with GLL to improve this service.

Councillor Biggs, Leader of the Council, introduced the presentation on the Council’s work on Community Partnerships.

The Leader invited Members to ask questions on the presentation. In response, the following clarifications were provided:

Banstead food pantry

It was confirmed that the Raven Housing Trust was assisting the Good Company with the startup of the food pantry and that the model was designed to be self-sustainable.

Energy saving devices

A Member asked for examples of the energy saving devices provided to households to combat fuel poverty. It was confirmed that these included LED lightbulbs, draught proofing, electric blankets, radiator foil, tumble dryer balls, water tank lagging, water pipe insulation and air fryers or slow cookers.

Food clubs

It was confirmed that there were waiting lists for some of the food clubs in the borough. This was due to a problem with the Fareshare food supply, which should improve when a Surrey warehouse was established. In the meantime, other ways of alleviating the problem, such as moving to fortnightly food club attendance, were being considered.

RESOLVED that:

Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the People Portfolio Holders updates.