Contact your Parish Council

 

MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL

 

HOUSING CONSULTATIVE BOARD

 

26^TH SEPTEMBER 2011

 

REPORT OF HEAD OF HOUSING

& COMMUNITY SERVICES

 

Report prepared by John Littlemore 

 

 

1.           Common Assessment Framework for Housing in Kent

 

1.1        Issue for Consideration

 

1.1.1   The Kent Housing Group has developed a draft Common Housing Assessment framework which aims to simplify the housing needs assessment process and provide efficiencies for Kent councils.  It proposes that local authorities in Kent adopt the same method for assessing housing need, in accordance with statutory guidelines, whilst maintaining separate and distinct allocation policies that allow for meeting local needs.

 

1.2        Recommendation of the Head of Housing & Community Services

        

1.2.1   That the Housing Consultative Board recommends the Cabinet Member for Communities and Leisure adopts the proposed Common Housing Assessment framework as the basis for consulting on a revised Allocation Scheme for Maidstone Borough Council, subject to there being no additional cost to the council. 

 

1.3        Reasons for Recommendation

 

1.3.1   The Kent Housing Group (KHG) has successfully introduced a number of joint initiatives including the Kent wide choice based lettings (CBL) scheme called Kent Homechoice. KHG asked a task and finish group to explore the next logical step, a common assessment scheme with the following aims:

·         To provide a framework that will allow the council to assess housing need in a fairer and simpler way that will improve customer experiences.

·         Working with other Kent councils to explore the scope for efficiencies in the development, consultation and implementation of the proposals.

·         To identify whether the implementation of the proposals could lead to substantial cost savings in housing need assessment through the development of on-line processes and economies of scale

 

1.3.2   The draft Kent Common Housing Assessment framework document, attached as Appendix A, proposes to simplify the assessment of housing needs within the district by the introduction of a system that places all applications for housing into one of five bands. Within each band, the date of application will determine where each application is placed.

 

1.3.3   Applications placed in Band A will be regarded as having urgent housing needs. Bids from these applications will be considered first for each vacant home that is advertised in the Kent Homechoice choice based lettings scheme. Bands assessed in B, C and D will have gradually less priority, with applications in Band E having no priority for housing.

 

1.3.4   Following discussion within the KHG it was agreed to retain a Band E as occasionally ‘hard to let’ properties have been successfully bid on by applicants with a minimal priority. In addition, it was felt that the officer time that might be spent dealing with requests for review and appeals against the decision not to allow access to the housing register would negate any saving in time arising from not processing Band E applicants.

 

1.3.5   The council currently assesses housing applications with a points based system. The main differences between the current assessment system and the proposed Common Housing Assessment framework are as follows:

 

·                     Bands are used to group applicants into their relative priority

·                     The date of application is then utilised to determine relative priority within each band.

 

1.3.6   The proposed changes to the current scheme for housing needs assessment conforms with legislative requirements and is in response to the statutory guidance ‘Fair and Flexible’ published in 2009 and the proposed Localism Bill currently going through Parliament. The main priorities and explanations for each of the five Bands are detailed in the following table:

 

Band	Description	Priorities
Band A	Urgent housing needs	·         Urgent medical or welfare needs   ·         Management transfer (e.g. major structural defect requiring the tenant to decant)
Band B	Serious housing needs	·         People occupying very overcrowded housing or otherwise living in very unsatisfactory housing conditions.
Band C	Reasonable preference	·         People who are homeless   ·         People occupying insanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions   ·         People who need to move on medical or welfare grounds, including grounds relating to a disability   ·         Mobility
Band D	General	·         People who are intentionally homeless, or who have deliberately worsened their housing circumstances   ·         People who are homeless by another local authority   ·         Priority but no local connection   ·         Non urgent priority but able to afford home purchase
Band E	General without priority	·         No priority and no local connection   ·         No priority and able to afford home purchase

 

1.3.7   The framework document also states who is eligible to join the council’s housing register. Applications must come from persons aged 16 or over, they cannot have a suitable home elsewhere, they cannot be persons from abroad subject to immigration control, and they must not be guilty of unacceptable behaviour serious enough to make them unsuitable to be a tenant.

 

1.3.8   The Common Housing Assessment framework relates to accessing the housing register and the assessment of relative priority only. The proposal does not extend to decisions regarding the allocation of accommodation, which will be retained by each district. Local authorities in conjunction with their housing association partners will determine locally a quota system for allocations to ensure the scheme remains flexible enough to respond to a changing market. For example, if the number of homeless households in temporary accommodation increased vacant dwellings would be advertised via Kent Homechoice to inform applicants, priority would be given to households who are owed the full statutory homelessness duty, or the percentage split between transfers and home-seekers will remain a matter to be determined locally (e.g. the 70/30 split between MBC and Golding Homes).

 

1.3.9   The Kent Housing Group proposes that all participating councils in Kent conduct a joint consultation exercise with registered providers, partners, tenants, residents and other interested parties. This should enable the council to efficiently fulfil its legal duty to involve, as consultation documentation and planning will be pooled amongst all the Kent councils.  Any significant changes to the proposals detailed in the Common Housing Assessment framework that came out of the consultation would have to be considered by the Cabinet Member.

 

1.3.10                Advantages:

A simplified mechanism for assessing priority between applicants is useful for enabling applicants to understand their likelihood of obtaining social housing. For those authorities who have moved to broad bands as opposed to points, they report applicants prefer a system which places more reliance on time on the list rather than specific attributes that confer additional points. The current Code of Guidance issued by the government on allocations endorses the use of banding being simpler to understand and to administer.      

 

1.3.11                 Implementation of Common Housing Assessment has the potential for making significant efficiency savings for the council. By working with partners in Kent Homechoice, a more effective housing needs administration system will be developed. Other choice based lettings schemes, such as the Greater Haven Gateway in Essex, have seen costs reduce through less reliance on application forms, less need for manual data input and reductions in manual housing assessments.

 

1.3.12                 Currently the bidding process is managed by software provided by Locata. The system is set up to enable each local authority to operate their own back office software. In Maidstone’s case this is provided by Capita Software in the form of the Academy for Housing system. By entering into a Common Assessment Framework a number of local authorities would be able to use the same software provided by Locata at an attractive fee. Additional upgrades could also be purchased at advantageous rates through the partnership.

 

1.3.13                 The common approach and use of the same software also enables future shared services to be a greater possibility. Some local authorities have grouped together which has enabled their housing registers to be administered by one local authority on behalf of the other partners.

 

1.3.14                 Disadvantages

The local housing authority will no longer be able to alter the assessment framework without the agreement of the other local authority partners. So, for example, if the local authority wanted to provide additional priority for members of the armed services it could not do so without agreement.

 

1.3.15                 Maidstone Council would need to give notice to its current software provider and would then be tied into the preferred software provider of the partnership. The functionality of the partnership software may not meet all the current tasks; e.g. Property Services currently use the housing software for the collection and recording of rent payments on their rented accommodation, which may not be able to be provided in the same format as with the Locata system.

 

1.3.16                 Timetable

Kent Housing Group has identified through its sub group, which is Chaired by the MBC representative, 5 local authorities who are committed to seeking approval to adopt the Common Housing Assessment framework in the first phase. Allowing for the consultation and process of adoption a notional commencement date has been set for April 2012. Other local authorities in Kent will follow 6 months later.

 

1.4        Alternative Action and why not Recommended

 

1.4.1   The council could choose not to participate in the Common Assessment Framework but in doing so the council would not be able to develop an assessment process that is both simple to understand and provides savings through efficiencies that are derived from on-line processing and ordering software or stationary through a consortium. 

 

1.5        Impact on Corporate Objectives

 

1.5.1   A robust and efficient assessment system for recording and assessing relative housing need will support the corporate priority of corporate & customer excellence.

 

1.6        Risk Management

 

1.6.1   A summary of the perceived risks to the council is shown in the following table:

 

Perceived risk	Impact	Likelihood	Preventative action
The Common Housing Assessment framework  fails to provide a fair system of access to affordable housing	High	Low	The council will work with housing associations to ensure that the new framework is implemented according to best practice and is closely monitored.   The document gives priority to broadly similar groups to those currently assessed.

 

 

1.7        Other Implications

 

1.7.1    

1.      Financial	X
2.           Staffing
3.           Legal	X
4.           Equality Impact Needs Assessment
5.           Environmental/Sustainable Development
6.           Community Safety
7.           Human Rights Act
8.           Procurement
9.           Asset Management

 

 

1.7.2   Financial    

There is a cost involved to migrate the housing register across from one system to another. In this council’s case it would involve terminating the Academy contract and moving onto the Locata system. The final cost of purchasing the new software is yet to be finalised but early indications are that a saving could be achieved.  The recommendation to adopt the Common Housing Assessment framework is subject to the migration producing a cost saving or being cost neutral.

 

1.7.3   Legal

The proposed Common Housing Assessment framework is compliant with the requirements of the Housing Act 1996, as amended, and the Codes of Guidance that have been issued in relation to allocations and choice based lettings.

 

1.8        Relevant Documents

 

Maidstone Borough Council Allocation Scheme

 

1.8.1   Appendices

 

Appendix A. Draft Common Housing Assessment framework

 

1.8.2   Background Documents

 

Housing Act 1996

Homelessness Act 2002

Allocation of Accommodation: Code of Guidance for Local Authorities

Allocation of Accommodation Choice Based Lettings: Code of Guidance – DCLG

 

Note:

Kent Housing Group is comprised of senior housing personnel from the local housing authorities and housing associations from across Kent and Medway. In addition representation on the Group comes from KCC, the Homes & Communities Agency and the Private Sector Landlords Association. The KHG is a collective voice for housing in Kent and has produced a number of strategic and best practice documents.  

 

IS THIS A KEY DECISION REPORT?   Yes                                               No     If yes, when did it first appear in the Forward Plan?   ..     This is a Key Decision because: ..   .       Wards/Parishes affected: ..   ..