Agenda item

LWarden introduced draft help to move policy, which will replace the previous policy ‘help to move to smaller home’, which was introduced in 2013 to tackle under occupation brought in by bedroom tax and to try to free up some of our larger homes.  The Council have carried out a survey, looking at the current need through housing register and looked at what neighbouring authorities provide. 

Cllr Mahmood asked, in the 7 years since the previous policy, how many people have taken up this option to downsize?  LWarden responded that initially there was a reasonable level of uptake, in response to the introduction of bedroom tax.  That has now tailed off.  In 2019 we had 27 people who downsized, and 20 of those were moving into sheltered accommodation.  We only had 7 moving within our general stock.

Cllr England referred to adapted properties and asked, what is the typical amount that it would cost us to adapt a property and does that have any bearing on how much we should be offering someone?  LWarden responded it is dependent on how much work is required.  The amount we are offering is £1k plus cost of removals.  We want to trial this for the first year to see if that is enough of an incentive, we can always review the scheme at a later date. 

Cllr Freedman advised he is in favour of the policy but gave some feedback that he is finding it quite difficult to scrutinise the report as there were some things that are perhaps not evident in the report.  Cannot quite see what the target is, is there a target number of properties of specific sizes that we are trying to move?  He added that when he read the policy it comes through very much what would happen if someone was going to move house right now.  What about if someone was thinking about downsizing but might want to move to a specific area, or have other influencers on not wanting to move immediately.  Is there a way someone can formally register on specific criteria for a future move? 

LWarden thanked Cllr Freedman for feedback about targets, commenting that is something they will take back for consideration. 

LWarden then responded to the comments about waiting for a suitable property and then downsizing, advising that tenants who register to downsize will then apply for houses they see advertised that they are interested in, if they are successful, a member of the support team will contact that tenant and advise them they qualify for the incentive payment and will support them at that stage.

Cllr Johnson asked, how is the scheme advertised to our tenants?  LWarden responded that it is promoted through our website and through News & Views.  When the survey was carried out they found some people were not aware of the scheme so they plan to do a formal launch.  Publicity will also be included with the next quarterly rent statement.

Cllr Johnson asked, is it correct this scheme was previously not open to anyone in rent arrears?  The new policy appears to allow people who have rent arrears but are making regular payments to participate, will that have any impact?  LWarden responded that we do currently still accept people in arrears, but their case would first be reviewed by a panel.  We recognise that leaving people in properties that are too big for their needs does not help the situation as they may be affected by bedroom tax and not able to afford the rent, so moving them would be beneficial to all parties.

Cllr Oguchi referenced the trend going down in terms of the number of people downsizing and asked, do you have an idea of how you want this new policy to impact this?  LWarden responded that we know from the housing register how many people are under occupying and how many have registered an interest to downsize.  We are hoping this policy will encourage a lot of those people to take the next step and start looking to move.  We have set our budget based on 2019 figures of households moving.