The Leader praised the report and gave thanks to Officers for their hard work.

The Cabinet Member for Housing introduced the report which sought to adopt the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-2023.  He thanked the previous administration for the consultation carried out.

The Cabinet Member for Housing said that housing was one of the key priorities for the new administration and affordable housing was a particular focus.  He highlighted that homelessness figures were significantly increasing, there were long waiting lists for affordable housing and not enough affordable housing was being built within the current Local Plan.  The Cabinet Member for Housing drew attention to the priorities on page 68 of the report and spoke of the complex needs of the homeless and rough sleepers.  He said that other issues could be worked on if housing was delivered and said that the two main causes of homelessness in Swale were parental eviction and evictions from privately rented tenancies.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing referred to the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-23 on pages 67-163 and spoke about the detailed and comprehensive review of the issues that had taken place.  He congratulated Officers for their hard work.  The Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing drew attention to the main challenges identified at the bottom of page 63 of the report.  He went on to highlight the four main proposed priorities at 2.5 on page 64 of the report and criticised the previous administration for their lack of action on addressing the housing issue.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing went through the document highlighting information including  the key priorities and objectives (page 70) and Swale’s housing market (page 74).  He paid particular attention to bullet point 5 on page 77 relating to Kent County Council’s commissioning strategy.  He commended the comprehensive report.

Members welcomed the report.  A Member asked that Central Government was continually pressed to change the criteria of the Homelessness Reduction Act.  The same Member said that more effort should be made to use Empty Dwelling Management Orders to help with homelessness.  A Member thanked officers for their work on achieving funding for rough sleepers in 2019.  A Member said that the housing market in the United Kingdom was dysfunctional, led to short-term tenancies and there was no security of tenure.   A Member said that he hoped that the number of properties approved for loans and grants to assist with energy efficiency would increase in future.

In summing up, the Leader said the new administration were putting more resources into the housing sector, would put greater pressure on developers to provide affordable housing  and had a readiness to intervene where the private sector did not provide housing and would have more responsibility for tenants in the private housing sector when they needed assistance.  He asked the Head of Housing, Economy and Community Services how the documents would be shared and publicised?  In response, the Head of Housing, Economy and Community Services explained there would be engagement with main stakeholders, publicising to residents, better engagement with tenants and liaising with main housing providers.  A Member asked that the Kent Association of Local Councils and Parish Councils be included. 

Resolved:

(1)  That the Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019 – 2023 be adopted.