Interviews with Councillor John A Wilson, Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services, John Littlemore, Head of Housing and Community Services and Neil Coles, Housing Services Manager.

Neil Coles, Housing Services Manager, presented the ECO Pilot report to the Committee.

In response to questions by Members, the Housing Services Manager explained that:-

·  A full marketing and communications plan will be prepared, the Council will endorse the scheme through letters and the website.  All Members will receive a briefing note about the scheme.  There will be some cost borne by the Council, mainly for officer time;

·  Enterprise, the proposed company to deliver the pilot, has an enormous amount of data about the type of residents and the types of properties in the Wards and it is in their interest to target those most in need;

·  The scheme will run across the borough and if people qualify they will be entitled wherever they live in Maidstone;

·  With regard to concerns raised about how residents/properties are prioritised, the provider needs to do the pilot as quickly and as cost effectively as possible and caution was advised to proposing too many changes to the criteria as the provider could decide not to go ahead in Maidstone; and

·  The pilot would be expected to start in October 2013.

Members were concerned that the rural areas would miss out on this opportunity as the four Ward areas for the pilot were in and around the town centre and it was proposed by the Housing Services Officer to amend the recommendation slightly to include the words “borough wide”.  It was therefore

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services be recommended to agree that the Council implements a Borough wide Warm Homes ECO pilot, initially targeting the wards of High Street, Park Wood, Shepway North and Shepway South.

(b)  That the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services be recommended to agree that the Council should enter into a contract with Enterprise Utility Services to deliver the Warm Homes ECO pilot.