Contact your Parish Council

MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL

 

CABINET MEMBER FOR REGENERATION

 

Report of the Assistant Director of Development & Community Strategy  

 

Report prepared by Stuart White 

Date Issued: 27 August 2009

 

1.           PRIVATE SECTOR HOUSING RENOVATION PROGRAMME 2009/10 and 2010/11

 

1.1        Issue for Decision

 

1.1.1   This report asks the cabinet member to approve the use of resources within the Private Sector Housing Renovation Grant budget; to provide the Chief Housing Officer with the discretion to move funds between the various grant headings thereby ensuring best use of the budget in a rapidly changing housing market; and to approve an enhanced service delivered through the existing grant for the Handyperson service.

 

1.2        Recommendation of Assistant Director of Development & Community Strategy 

 

1.2.1   That the Cabinet Member agrees the use of the Renovation Grant budget for the years 2009/10 and 2010/11 as set out in appendix A. of this report, noting the additional provisional for 2009/10 of £128,394 for decent homes and £135,000 for disabled facilities grant, which are ring-fenced by conditions for those purposes.

 

1.2.2   That the Cabinet Member provides authority to the Chief Housing Officer to allocate funds between the budget headings in consultation with the Director of Resources & Partnerships as outlined in appendix A. in response to market conditions and to ensure best use of the budget.   

 

1.2.3   That the Cabinet Member approves the enhanced service to be delivered through the Handyperson service to be funded through the existing grant.

 

1.2.4   That the Cabinet Member approves an amendment to our Housing Assistance Policy to allow a differential rate for landlord grants which provides a higher percentage of grant assistance (75%) to landlords who are accredited under the Kent Landlords’ Accreditation Scheme and 50% to unaccredited landlords.

 

 

1.3        Reasons for Recommendation (grant budget)

 

1.3.1 The economic downturn has also had an effect on the take up of certain grants such as First Time Buyers grant. The take up for last year was disappointing but was as a result of lack of activity in the housing market. It is difficult to predict whether this coming year will be any different. However, this grant is likely to assist with the revival of the housing market when it comes and for that reason this budget should be kept under review rather than deleted.

 

1.3.2 The renovation grant programme (excluding disabled adaptations) is largely focused on improving homes to the decent homes standard and as such the spectrum of grants provided by the council achieves this same aim. Although we attempt to predict how the overall grant will be allocated at the beginning of the year, what is important is that the actual spend achieves the purpose of making homes decent. 

 

1.3.3 Around half of the grant budget for 2009-2010 will come from external funding and it is entirely possible that towards the end of the year further funds may become available. In order to make best use of such monies we need to be in a position to react quickly. Typically funding that becomes available in this way needs to be committed and spent by the end of the financial year. To enable this process to happen expeditiously it is proposed to delegate authority to the Chief Housing Officer to finalise how the approved overall budget is allocated.

 

1.3.4 The Council has recently commissioned a private sector house conditions survey. The results of the survey will be known towards the end of August and will provide information about the private housing stock and what impact our programme over the last 5 years has had. Early indications support the council’s approach adopted in the Housing Strategy 2005.

 

1.3.5   The management of the two Council owned Gypsy sites has recently been transferred to the Housing service. There are a number of items that require replacement on the sites. For instance perimeter fencing work at Water Lane, Ulcombe to include security fencing of the electricity meter area is urgent. Estimated cost of this work is in the order of £25K.

 

1.3.6   This work is urgent and necessary to prevent unauthorised access to the area, which in turn will prevent illegal connections to the electricity supply. A sum of £50K is recommended to be set aside for the purpose of repair and improvement of the two sites.

 

1.3.7   In April 2009 the Cabinet Member approved a Landlords’ Accreditation scheme. It was suggested at the time that a benefit from becoming accredited should be a differential level of grant availability. This would provide a motivation to landlords and help raise standards across the private rented sector.

 

1.4        Reason for recommendation (Handyperson service)

 

1.4.1   The council has been in the forefront of developing a Handyperson scheme for older and vulnerable people. The service completes small jobs around a person’s home with the confidence that the trades-person is a vetted operative. The service has been delivered by the “In Touch” Home Improvement Agency (HIA). Due to the popularity of this service (growing from 414 job completions in 2005/06 to 874 in 2008/09) the council increase funding 2 years ago to enable the addition of a second Handyperson, as a waiting list for the service was developing.

 

1.4.2   The reputation of the Handyperson service has grown to the extent that Kent County Council successfully bid to Government through the Kent Commissioning Body for Supporting People for funding to enable each local authority in Kent to provide a basic Handyperson service. Subsequently your officers met with In Touch to discuss how this would affect the service delivered to residents in Maidstone.  The opportunity has arisen to provide a more enhanced service in Maidstone without altering the council’s contribution.

 

1.4.3   The enhanced service could provide assistance with such items as gardening, decorating, and path & gutter clearing. At the present time these are not available through the scheme but have been requested. Enhancing the service in this way would maintain Maidstone Borough Council’s position for delivering ground breaking and forward thinking services that other councils then follow.

 

1.4.4        At the present time no charge is made (apart from materials) to people on a means tested benefit. For other recipients of the service a charge of £5 per hour is made. One of the criteria of the new Kent wide scheme is that a nominal charge is made to all clients. Following consultation it is proposed to adopt a new charging mechanism. For people on a means tested benefit a charge of £5 per hour will apply and for other clients £10 per hour.

 

1.4.5 As part of reviewing the service In Touch surveyed 100 service users, who were asked to complete a service review questionnaire. The survey produced a 62% return and the headline results were:

 

·         83% of service users agree with the proposal to charge £5.00 per hour to those clients in receipt of a Means Tested Benefits (MTB) and £10 to those people not in receipt of a MTB.

·         Those service users who approved of the change were made up of users on a MTB (35.4%) and users not in receipt of a MTB (45%)

·         Only 12% of all respondents opposed the introduction of charges.

·         There was unanimous approval for a gardening, decorating, gutter and pathway clearance service

        

1.5        Alternative action and why not recommended

 

1.5.1 The council could decide to leave the division of the grant budget as it was for 2008-2009. Although the proposed division is similar, if the council decides to leave the budgets as before it would run the risk of not spending the grant budget. This in turn would not find favour with the external organisations that have provided funding to us partly based on our ability to make best use of the money provided.

 

1.5.2 The Council could decide not to delegate the authority to re-allocate funding between the budgets but this would mean that even small changes in the division of the renovation grant budget would require cabinet member approval. This is considered cumbersome and could potentially result in the funds not being spent.

 

1.5.3 The Council could decide to withdraw funding or reduce funding for the Handyperson service. If it is withdrawn, the service provided would be greatly reduced. It is a well received service and enables vulnerable people to carry out small repairs and improvements at reasonable cost by a trusted person. It is a ‘spend to save’ approach that can remedy small repairs before they develop into something larger and ultimately become more costly for the council to rectify under grant assistance. It can also provide such things as grab rails around accesses and bathing facilities that could also prevent injuries and therefore has a social cost benefit.

 

1.5.4 If funding is reduced this would be a missed opportunity to greatly enhance the service and put Maidstone once more at the forefront of service provision. Such seemingly small jobs can be so worrying for vulnerable people; gardens becoming overgrown can make them a target for vandalism, and rogue traders who will do a poor job at inflated prices.        

 

1.6        Impact on Corporate objectives

 

1.6.1  The recommendations support the key objectives set out within the Homes and Communities section of the Strategic plan, in particular improving the quality of the existing housing stock in the borough.

 

1.6.2  The proposals also support the key objectives contained within Health and Older People by contributing to improved health, reducing risk within the home and improving the quality of life for individuals, enabling them to remain within their own homes.

 

1.7        Risk Management

 

1.7.1   The proposals help to reduce the risk of the council not making best use of the funds made available for renovation grants and will contribute to maintaining a high use of resources score.

 

1.8        Other Implications

 

1.8.1    

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO REPORT WILL BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT THIS BOX BEING COMPLETED   X       Is this a Key Decision?        Yes                        No        If yes, when did it appear in the Forward Plan? July 2009     X   Is this an Urgent Key Decision?     Yes                  No   Reason for Urgency

 

 

 

How to Comment   Should you have any comments on the issue that is being considered please contact either the relevant Officer or the Member of the Executive who will be taking the decision.   Councillor Malcolm Greer                                    Cabinet Member for Regeneration                                                                                     Telephone: 01634 862876                                                              E-mail:  malcolmgreer@maidstone.gov.uk   Stuart White                                                         Private Sector Housing Manager                                                                                     Telephone: 01622 602103                                                                 E-mail:  stuartwhite@maidstone.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix A

 

 

 

Grant	PSH Capital  Budget 2009-11	MBC Budget Contribution 2009 - 11	Delivery Mechanism
Home Repair Grants	250,000	125,000	In Touch
First Time Buyers	100,000	50,000	MBC
Heating & Insulation	400,000	140,000	EAGA/CEN/ New Contractor
Landlords Grant	250,000	125,000	MBC
Mobile Homes Grant	20,000	20,000	MBC
Disabled Facilities Grant	825,000	420,000	MBC/In-Touch/MHT
DFG Discretionary Grant	50,000	50,000	MBC/In-Touch
MHT Aids & Adaptations	40,000	40,000	MHT
New Activities/Solar Water heating	95,000	0	MBC/CEN/ New contractor
Handy Person service	70,000	70,000	In Touch
Gypsy site refurbishment	50,000	50,000	MBC
Total	2,150,000	1,065,000