Decision

Decsion
RESOLVED to approve
 
RESOLVED to approve the following:

Homelessness Task & Finish Group
(chaired by Cllr Dr V Holliday)

 
(A) 
To prevent homelessness expands its homelessness service prevention
work to undertake such work at an earlier stage along with multi
agency support, on an invest to save basis, to seek to reduce the
number of people going into temporary accommodation and the costs
of that to the council that should include
1.   
increasing the awareness and risks of homelessness in the local
communities, on the value of prevention for homelessness and that
early intervention requires people to ask for help before it
becomes too late
2.   
increasing its communication work which should include Parish and
Town Councils and should also provide support to Councillors to
enable them to help signpost those people who need housing help
3.   
increasing the range of interventions to help people especially on
benefit support and with financial viability
assessments 
 
(B) Managing homelessness
Explores how it uses partner, charity, and
voluntary organisations to create a series of outreach hubs and
front-line services in North Norfolk for homelessness to
create a network of advice and support including appropriate
partner organisation(s)
(C) Housing allocation
Considers the viability of a support match
scheme to match younger residents who need accommodation into
a home with an older resident(s) that needs assistance in a similar
way to the scheme in Cornwall
Supportmatch Homeshare - Cornwall Council
(D) Increase housing supply
1. Continues to encourage its Councillors to
work within their local communities to seek to find additional
plots of land that can be used for new affordable housing
schemes
2. As a medium-term solution looks at setting
up an investment partnership to provide affordable local housing
for local people at social, discount and market rent. We would
recommend the model used by Cambridge City Council and Gravesham
Borough Council who set an investment partnership with the Hill
Group on a 50:50 basis
3. Explores the use of Solo Haus one bed
housing where additional  
temporary accommodation for single people is required
(E) Increase affordable house
building/supply
1.  Undertakes an
audit of shop fronts away from primary retail areas and empty units
above and behind shops to assess their potential for conversion to
residential usage or renting out rooms
2.   
An affordable housing conference be set up to encourage Parish and
Town councils to create neighbourhood plans that include
allocations for community led development for local people and
encourages community land trusts to come forward with affordable
schemes in rural exception sites
 
3.   
Continues to seek from Norfolk County Council a minimum 50% return
of the extra Council tax that will be received from the new extra
second homes premium and that the money the Council receives is
ringfenced for affordable housing
 
4.   
Responds to the Government consultation on changes to the National
Planning Policy Framework on the definition of affordability
 
5.   
Explores the potential to use Better Society Capital/National
Homelessness Property fund 2 funding for 3-to-4-bedroom
properties
 National
Homelessness Property fund 2 | Better Society Capital
(F) Increase/sustain Private rental
tenancies 
 
1. Explores the model of using a local estate
agency to set up a Council letting agency and also looks at whether
homelessness prevention grant could be used to bring empty
properties back into use
2. Encourages the new government to continue
the previous government’s work on introducing an appropriate
licencing scheme for all short-term lets
3. Continues to engage proactively with
private landlords and considers whether setting up a Landlords
Forum would be beneficial with an introductory conference type
session including mortgage brokers, lenders, insurance companies as
well as landlords and housing associations to explore solutions to
the issues Landlords are experiencing
(G) Reducing Long Term Empty Homes
1.   
Continues to have an Empty Homes Officer as a permanent role
 
2. Considers how to increase
engagement with the Town and Parish Councils on the number of
long-term empty properties in their areas
3. Continues to investigate whether funding
could be found to refurbish empty properties for people in housing
need
(H) Sustain social tenancies
1. Continues to investigate with registered
providers on the reuse of sheltered housing and to seek fewer
age designated homes
2. Continues to have a strategic discussion
with the registered providers on potential disposals that may occur
over the next few years
3. Encourages registered providers to ensure
sufficient target hardening is provided in Domestic Abuse cases
(I) Prevention of/provision for
victims of Domestic Abuse
1. Explores how partner organisations can be
used to help with homelessness prevention especially in domestic
abuse cases that would include tenancy support by the Registered
Providers and spreading awareness to Parish and Town Councils
and Councillors 
2. Asks the new Norfolk Police and Crime
Commissioner whether the offer of scoping out a pilot that moves
out the perpetrator in domestic abuse cases rather than the victim
is still valid
 
(B) 
 Reporting progress
implementing Corporate Plan 2023-27 Delivery against Action Plan
2023-24 and Action Plan 2024-25 - to end of Quarter 1 - 30 June
2024
 
That more detailed information be provided
within the action plan that would include delivery dates where
possible and success criteria to give a greater understanding of
the progress being made against each of the RAG targets.
ld hand over to Cllr DR V Holliday, Chairman
of the Homelessness Task & Finish Group to introduce the first
item.
Cllr Holliday began by reminding members of
the scale of homelessness in North Norfolk and the misery it
caused. It placed a financial strain on everyone’s budgets
including the Council. The emotional, mental and physical toll that
it took on households was beyond comprehension and the
Council’s teams worked tirelessly and under great pressure.
The Task & Finish Group (set up by the Overview & Scrutiny
Committee) set out with the widest possible range of interventions
to reduce homelessness and to produce practical solutions to
relieve homelessness. She said that there was some overlap with the
excellent work currently being carried out by Housing Team at the
Council which above and beyond for residents, however, it was felt
important to start with a ‘clean slate’.
Cllr Holliday said that the Task & Finish
Group had met with 8 external witnesses and 5 officers and the
recommendations came from them. It was hoped that, if the
recommendations were supported by Cabinet, they would help the
Council to continue to provide the best outcomes for households
across the district that were at risk of homelessness or who had
become homeless. It was recognised that the recommendations were
just the first step and that they needed to be explored in more
depth once across. The Group did not see its remit as fleshing out
proposals in detail. She added that Recommendation E(4) was now out
of date and could be removed.
The Chairman thanked Cllr Holliday and the
Task & Finish Group for their extensive work. He assured her
that the recommendations would be considered fully. He then invited
Cllr W Fredericks, Portfolio Holder for Housing & Benefits to
speak.
Cllr Fredericks began by thanking the Task
& Finish Group and everyone involved in the process. She said
that homelessness was a big issue and it was pleasing to see
cross-party support for tackling such a challenging problem. She
said that there was a lot of information in the report and
resulting recommendations that would need to be looked at in detail
to understand the potential benefit and the cost implications. She
went onto say that many of the themes in the report reflected those
in the Housing Strategy, the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping
Strategy and the Housing refresh, all of these were
‘live’ documents and there was an action plan in place
too. These documents were all regularly reviewed and where there
was an opportunity to incorporate any changes, then they would be
updated.
Picking up on some of the themes identified by
the Task & Finish Group, Cllr Fredericks said that she would
like to highlight some of the work that was currently ongoing or
planned. Last year information was sent out to all town and parish
councils in the district highlighting the housing need in their
area. This exercise would be repeated soon and additional
information provided about empty homes and where to get help if
anyone found themselves homeless. The Council had also been
carrying out a consultation on the ‘Your Choice, Your
Home’ scheme and members had had the opportunity to attend
briefings on this.
Cllr Fredericks said that the Council had also
been working with the East of England Local Government Association
(EELGA) to review the effectiveness of NNDC’s temporary
accommodation provision and additional options and avenues were
always being explored.
In partnership with organisations across
Norfolk, a private rental sector networking event was taking place
on 9th October and this was focussed on the theme of
‘No homelessness in Norfolk’. NNDC’s Housing Team
were attending this event.
In conclusion, Cllr Fredericks said that these
were just a few examples of the ongoing work to address this issue
of homelessness. She thanked the Task & Finish Group for their
valuable input.
The Chairman agreed that there was a constant
stream of work ongoing in this area to explore all possibilities
and tangible outcomes. Cllr Fredericks thanked all of the officers
working in People Services for their continued hard work.
The Chairman invited members to speak:
Cllr A Brown, Portfolio Holder for Planning,
referred to recommendation E(4) ‘Responds to the Government
consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework
(NPPF) on the definition of affordability’. He said that the
NPPF was constantly being reviewed and updated and since the
General Election there been a further push to change it again and a
consultation with local authorities had been rolled out over the
summer. The September deadline for responses had been challenging
and he thanked officers and Cabinet members for their hard work in
preparing a reply on behalf of NNDC.  He
said that one of the main responses provided was that the
definition of affordable housing needed to be completely reviewed
and it was the Council’s view that affordable housing should
be linked to local incomes and the ability to afford mortgages by
capping it at three times a joint income.
Cllr J Toye said that regarding the issue of
domestic abuse, he wanted to make members aware that he was the
Vice-Chairman of the County Council’s Police & Crime
Panel and together with Cllr Withington, he had made contact with
the new Police & Crime Commissioner to start working on this
area.
Cllr L Shires thanked everyone involved in the
Task & Finish Group’s work on this issue. She said that
Norfolk County Council (NCC) had £1.8m of funding as a Tier 1
authority to assess the need for accommodation for domestic abuse
victims in their area and to use this funding to supply it. She
asked for an update on how this funding was being used and whether
the District Council had been having discussions with NCC as
domestic abuse was now one of the main drivers behind homelessness
in North Norfolk. Cllr Fredericks said that no funding had been
forthcoming from the County Council to date. She agreed that it was
important to start a dialogue with NCC as soon as possible and said
that the Council would contact them ask for an update on how the
funding was being spent.
Cllr C Cushing asked Cllr Brown if the
Council’s response to the NPPF consultation could be shared
with members. Cllr Brown said that he believed it was published on
the Council’s website but if this was not the case, he would
certainly share it with members.
Cllr V Holliday asked if there would be a
follow up at some point to see if the recommendations were being
implemented.
The Chairman said that there was working
ongoing regarding homelessness and key outcomes were continually
monitored, however, the Overview & Scrutiny Committee may want
to review this topic in the coming months. Cllr Fredericks added
that the Housing Strategy Action Plan and this covered the majority
of the recommendations and it was good to have the affirmation that
the right areas were being focussed on. She said that Overview
& Scrutiny Committee was due to consider the Housing Strategy
soon and she would incorporate any additional points raised as part
of the Task & Finish Group’s work at that point. The
Chairman said that Cabinet would welcome the Overview &
Scrutiny Committee receiving regular updates on this topic. Cllr
Holliday said that the Task & Finish Group’s work had
been undertaken with existing housing policies and strategies in
mind and cross-referenced against everything.
The Chairman invited Cllr Dixon to speak to
the second recommendation made by the Overview & Scrutiny
Committee regarding ‘Reporting Progress implementing the
Corporate Plan’. Before doing so, Cllr Dixon asked for
clarification regarding the Task & Finish Group recommendations
and whether they had been accepted. The Chairman replied that he
intended to take all of the recommendations together.
Cllr Dixon explained that he was not present
at the meeting of 20th September but that the
recommendation was self-explanatory.
The Chairman thanked Cllr Dixon and Cllr
Holliday for attending Cabinet and presenting the recommendations.
He proposed that they were all approved en bloc. Cllr W Fredericks
seconded the proposal.
It was RESOLVED to approve the
following:

Homelessness Task & Finish Group
(chaired by Cllr Dr V Holliday)

 
(C) 
To prevent homelessness
 
expands its homelessness service prevention work
to undertake such work at an earlier stage along with multi agency
support, on an invest to save basis, to seek to reduce the number
of people going into temporary accommodation and the costs of that
to the council that should include
4.   
increasing the awareness and risks of homelessness in the local
communities, on the value of prevention for homelessness and that
early intervention requires people to ask for help before it
becomes too late
5.   
increasing its communication work which should include Parish and
Town Councils and should also provide support to Councillors to
enable them to help signpost those people who need housing
help
6.   
increasing the range of interventions to help people
especially on benefit support and with financial viability
assessments 
 
(B) Managing homelessness
Explores how it uses partner,
charity, and voluntary organisations to create a series of outreach
hubs and front-line services in North Norfolk for homelessness
to create a network of advice and support including appropriate
partner organisation(s)
(C) Housing allocation
Considers the viability of a
support match scheme to match younger residents who need
accommodation into a home with an older resident(s) that needs
assistance in a similar way to the scheme in Cornwall
Supportmatch
Homeshare - Cornwall Council
(D) Increase housing supply
1. Continues to encourage its
Councillors to work within their local communities to seek to find
additional plots of land that can be used for new affordable
housing schemes
2. As a
medium-term solution looks at setting up an investment partnership
to provide affordable local housing for local people at social,
discount and market rent. We would recommend the model used by
Cambridge City Council and Gravesham Borough Council who set an
investment partnership with the Hill Group on a 50:50
basis
3. Explores the
use of Solo Haus one bed housing where additional   temporary accommodation for single people is
required
(E) Increase affordable house
building/supply
1.  Undertakes an
audit of shop fronts away from primary retail areas and empty units
above and behind shops to assess their potential for conversion to
residential usage or renting out rooms
6.   
An affordable housing conference be set up to encourage Parish and
Town councils to create neighbourhood plans that include
allocations for community led development for local people and
encourages community land trusts to come forward with affordable
schemes in rural exception sites
 
7.   
Continues to seek from Norfolk County Council a minimum 50% return
of the extra Council tax that will be received from the new extra
second homes premium and that the money the Council receives is
ringfenced for affordable housing
 
8.   
Responds to the Government consultation on changes to the National
Planning Policy Framework on the definition of
affordability
 
9.   
Explores the potential to use Better Society Capital/National
Homelessness Property fund 2 funding for 3-to-4-bedroom
properties
 National
Homelessness Property fund 2 | Better Society
Capital
(F) Increase/sustain Private rental
tenancies 
 
1. Explores the
model of using a local estate agency to set up a Council letting
agency and also looks at whether homelessness prevention grant
could be used to bring empty properties back into
use
2. Encourages the new
government to continue the previous government’s work on
introducing an appropriate licencing scheme for all short-term
lets
3. Continues to engage proactively with
private landlords and considers whether setting up a Landlords
Forum would be beneficial with an introductory conference type
session including mortgage brokers, lenders, insurance companies as
well as landlords and housing associations to explore solutions to
the issues Landlords are experiencing
(G) Reducing Long Term Empty Homes
1.   
Continues to have an Empty Homes Officer as a permanent
role
 
2. Considers how to increase
engagement with the Town and Parish Councils on the number of
long-term empty properties in their areas
3. Continues to investigate
whether funding could be found to refurbish empty properties for
people in housing need
(H) Sustain social tenancies
1. Continues to investigate with registered
providers on the reuse of sheltered housing and to seek fewer
age designated homes
2. Continues to have a
strategic discussion with the registered providers on potential
disposals that may occur over the next few years
3. Encourages registered
providers to ensure sufficient target hardening is provided in
Domestic Abuse cases
(I) Prevention of/provision for victims of
Domestic Abuse
1. Explores how
partner organisations can be used to help with homelessness
prevention especially in domestic abuse cases that would include
tenancy support by the Registered Providers and spreading
awareness to Parish and Town Councils and
Councillors 
2.
Asks the new Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner whether the
offer of scoping out a pilot that moves out the perpetrator in
domestic abuse cases rather than the victim is still valid
 
(D) 
 Reporting progress
implementing Corporate Plan 2023-27 Delivery against Action Plan
2023-24 and Action Plan 2024-25 - to end of Quarter 1 - 30 June
2024
 
That more detailed information be provided
within the action plan that would include delivery dates where
possible and success criteria to give a greater understanding of
the progress being made against each of the RAG targets.