Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, People, which sought approval to amend the Council’s Housing Allocations Policy, Property Pool Plus (PPP).

The Board was advised that, as part of the Government’s commitment to reduce homelessness and eliminate rough sleeping, new regulations – The Homelessness Reduction Act – had been implemented in April 2018. It was reported that as a result, local authorities would need to make policy and service changes to ensure that they were fully equipped to deliver and comply with legal statutory duty requirements.

It was reported that it would be necessary for a full review of the Council’s Housing Allocations Policy to be undertaken to address the needs of all clients, to ensure that the priority categories and criteria were compliant with national trends and legislation. The results and recommendations would be reported to the Board in Spring 2019.

RESOLVED: That

1)    the report be noted;

2)    subject to the unanimous agreement of the Local Authorities participating in the Sub-Regional Property Pool Plus Scheme, the Board agrees to amend the Council’s Housing Allocations Policy, to include the additional sub-banding, which would ensure that additional priority is awarded to those registered under Homelessness Prevention and/or Relief, in accordance with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017; and

3)    the Board approves the undertaking of a policy review for the purpose of further amending the Housing Allocations Policy, to take account of provisions within the Localism Act 2012, the Homelessness Act 2017 and the Housing Allocations Code of Guidance.