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Decision details
Reference from Council - Motion - Spare Room Subsidy
Decision Maker: Cabinet.
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: Yes
Purpose:
To agree the motion relating to the Bedroom Tax (Spare Room Subsidy).
Decision:
1.
As a review of the Housing Allocation Policy was undertaken less
than six months ago, there is no need to carry out another
review. The actions taken to assist
residents in downsizing to smaller accommodation was
noted;
2.
The Council will continue to do all it can within the
Council’s legal powers to minimise the impact of spare room
subsidy on families where there maybe short term absences and also
people with disabilities where additional bedrooms may be required
due to a person’s disabilities;
3.
The Leader of the Council will write to the Ministers of Housing
and Work and Pensions setting out the facts and experiences in
Maidstone arising from the spare room subsidy policy and send a
copy to the LGA; and
4. The Leader will also provide feedback at the next full Council meeting in December under the ‘Current Issues’ agenda item.
Reasons for the decision:
Council adopted the
Housing Allocation Policy in April 2013. It moved away from a points based system to a
banding system.
A review was carried out in May this year with tenants and
stakeholders and the issue of people being prevented from
downsizing was not raised during the review.
From the records 39 people have been able to downsize over the past
year which does not support the evidence that people were being
blocked from downsizing. There are a
further 79 applicants on the register who are looking to downsize
and are under retirement age so these are the people that would be
effected by the spare room subsidy.
It should be borne in mind that there are 587 people who are
effected by the spare room subsidy.
Information relating to the services that are available to tenants
has been promoted through housing associations and Golding Homes recently hosted an event about mutual
exchanges which was open to all tenants which is another option
which people can use to downsize.
There is a general lack of suitable accommodation that people can
downsize to.
Alternative options considered:
As a review of the Housing Allocation Policy was undertaken only six months ago, it would not seem advisable to carry out another review at this time.
Publication date: 10/10/2014
Date of decision: 08/10/2014
Decided: 08/10/2014 - Cabinet.
Effective from: 18/10/2014
Accompanying Documents: