Content

Salford City Council - Record of
Decision
 
I, Councillor Tracy Kelly, Statutory Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for
Housing, Property and Regeneration, in exercise of the powers
contained within the Council Constitution, do hereby approve:
 
A
temporary change to Salford’s Allocations Policy, to test the
impact of providing people threatened with homelessness (owed a
Prevention Duty, under Part VII, Housing Act) with higher housing
priority than people who are homeless (owed a Relief Duty, under
Part VII, Housing Act) – the outcomes of which will inform
the wider review of Salford’s Allocation’s Policy which
is due to take place in 2024/25.
 
The
Reasons are:
There is a long and well-established history of the
following, in Salford:

·        
Historically, more
people approach for help when they are homeless (1494 in 2022/23)
instead of earlier when they may be threatened with homelessness
(766 in 2022/23) and there is a need to encourage earlier
engagement.

·        
Salford’s
current Allocations Policy prioritises
rehousing homeless households, instead of preventing homelessness.
As a result, more people acquire a Relief duty (because they then
become homeless) and thus become in need of and entitled to
temporary accommodation (TA) – with the overall number of
households placed in statutory funded TA placements increasing year
on year.

·        
TA is costing the
Authority millions of pounds every year and there has been a 65% increase in placements since 2021, with
obvious increases in costs, as a result.

Salford’s new
homelessness strategy ‘Homelessness is everyone's
business,’ has a strong homelessness prevention focus and one
strategic priority, approved by the Council, was the review of the
role of the Allocations Policy in order
to maximise preventing homelessness.
An options appraisal
identified a preferred approach for piloting and testing for a
period of 6 months.

 
Options considered and rejected were:

a)   
No action – This
is not considered a reasonable option. TA use and costs are
increasing year on year – with wider impact on households and
services. Without action these increases are likely to continue,
with considerable financial, reputational and safeguarding risk to the council.
The current policy prioritises
rehousing homeless cohorts (with a Relief duty) and this clearly is
not having a significant positive impact.

b)   
A change in policy
giving greater priority to homeless (Relief duty) applicants on
Salford Home Search – identified the following potential
impacts:
                     
i.       
Will not incentivise people to approach as early as possible
for help or facilitate homelessness prevention – the
City’s key strategic priority.
                    
ii.       
May encourage people
to try to manufacture circumstances, to become homeless earlier
i.e., exclusion by family and friends.
                   
iii.       
Even more people
entitled to temporary accommodation (as a
result of i. and ii. above),
with resulting higher TA use and costs.
                  
iv.       
Knock on impact on
vulnerable people, families and children and wider universal
services.
                    
v.       
The policy already
prioritises homeless households so an
increase in the level of priority will have no impact.
This option is not considered a
reasonable or effective one.
 
Assessment of Risk: Medium:
The change is temporary
in order to pilot and test the wider
impact of the changes. No impacts on general housing need
applicants are anticipated as the current policy already
prioritises homeless cases overall.
 
The source of funding
is: N/A
 
Legal Advice
obtained:
Michael Goulden - City Solicitor
There are no legal implications
from a housing allocations perspective. This is an amendment
allowed under section 166A(5) Housing Act 1996 and the change is
temporary to pilot the wider impact of it.
 
Financial advice
obtained: N/A
 
Procurement advice
obtained: N/A
 
HR advice
obtained: N/A
 
Climate Change advice
obtained: N/A
 
The
following documents have been used to assist the decision
process:
Salford’s Allocations
Policy
 
Contact
Officer:Julie Craik             
Tel. 0161 789 2143                
Email: julie.craik@salford.gov.uk
 
 
This decision is not subject to
consideration by another Lead Member.
 
The appropriate scrutiny panel
to call-in the decision is the Growth & Prosperity Scrutiny
Panel.
 
 
 

Signed: Councillor Tracy Kelly                                              
Dated: 23rd January 2024
Statutory Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Housing,
Property & Regeneration
 

 
This decision was published on 23rd January
2024.
 
This decision will come into force at
4.00 p.m. on 30th January 2024, unless it is called-in in accordance with the
decision-making process rules.