The Ashford Borough Council cabinet met on 11 September 2025, and endorsed a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025-2030, approved putting options for a new Council Tax Reduction Scheme from April 2026 out for public consultation, and approved amendments to the council's complaint handling and unreasonable conduct policies. The cabinet also noted progress on the Levelling Up Fund and Newtown Works, and received an update on the Ashford Town Centre Market Review.

Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2025-2030

The cabinet endorsed the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025-2030, which aims to address and reduce homelessness within the community. The strategy has five priorities:

1. Ensure accommodation is or will be available for people who are or may become homeless.
2. Prevent homelessness wherever possible.
3. Provide support to people who are or may become homeless, or who have been homeless and need support to prevent them becoming homeless.
4. Make the best use of the resources available to tackle homelessness.
5. Monitor the current and likely future levels of homelessness.

The strategy notes that homelessness has risen due to factors like economic hardship, housing shortages, and mental health issues, with a 118% increase in temporary accommodation placements since 2021. The strategy also acknowledges the impact of the increase in applicants presenting as homeless.

The cabinet also delegated authority to the Assistant Director of Housing to make any subsequent changes to the strategy arising from legislative or operational changes, and re-confirmed delegated authority to operate the council's Private Sector Leasing (PSL) scheme.

The Equality Impact Assessment notes that the strategy aims to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between individuals who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

The strategy was consulted on for a 6 week period from 19th May 2025, and key themes from the responses to the consultation included:

• Preventing Homelessness through a proactive, early intervention approach.
• Identifying Gaps and Barriers in service coordination and access to resources.
• Reducing Rough Sleeping through enhanced outreach and community engagement.

The strategy also considered other options such as a Housing First approach¹, transitional housing, diversion programs, permanent supportive housing, and public awareness campaigns.

Councillor Noel Ovenden, Leader of the Council & Cabinet Member for Finance and Resource (with Special Responsibility for Housing & Homelessness), said:

The growth in numbers of people needing temporary accommodation – many with complex needs – is simply not sustainable, either socially or financially.

Council Tax Reduction Scheme from April 2026

The cabinet agreed to put forward options for a new Council Tax Reduction Scheme from April 2026 for public consultation. The existing scheme has been in place since 1 April 2020, but changes to incentive grants from Kent County Council² have prompted a review.

The report presented five options for consideration:

• Option 1: Make no changes at all.
• Option 2: Align the working age scheme with the vulnerable scheme offering a maximum level of support to all of 90% or 100%.
• Option 3: Align the Working age scheme with the vulnerable scheme offering a maximum level of support to all of 90% or 100%, but separate all vulnerable residents into a banded structure.
• Option 4: To align the schemes as in option 3, but to add in the additional Universal Credit Elements, allowable for disregard.
• Option 5: Align the Working age scheme with the vulnerable scheme offering a maximum level of support to all of 90% or 100%, as in option 4, but base it on the claimant & partner income & allowances only, totally ignoring any income or allowances for children.

The consultation will be web based and will be carried out on all working age Council Tax reduction recipients (approximately 6700) and 1000 Council Tax payers not in receipt of Council Tax reduction. The consultation questionnaire will also be available on the Council's website and stakeholders such as CAB³, and Shelter⁴ will be directly contacted via email and invited to respond.

The timeline for the consultation is as follows:

• Open consultation: 19 September 2025
• Close consultation: 31 October 2025
• Present results and scheme to Cabinet: 8 January 2026
• Present results and scheme to Council: 26 February 2026
• Deadline for publishing agreed scheme for 2026/27: 11 March 2026
• New scheme live: 1 April 2026

Councillor Noel Ovenden said he supported the creation of a simpler and fairer scheme in response to the removal of the KCC incentive grant.

Review of Complaint Handling and Unreasonable Conduct Policies

The cabinet adopted amendments to the Complaints Handling Policy, Housing Complaints Policy and Unreasonable Conduct Policy. The amendments were made to ensure the policies are operationally aligned, and to reflect changes to Housing Ombudsman requirements on performance monitoring timescales.

Both Complaints Handling Policies have been amended to explain what happens when a complaint relates to a data protection matter or Freedom of Information Request⁵.

The cabinet also delegated authority to the Head of Policy and Performance and Assistant Director of Housing to make any further changes to the above policies to deliver continuous improvement of the council's complaints handling processes.

Councillor Heather Hayward, Cabinet Member for Tourism, Culture, Policy and Performance, said the three policies were important to meet the Ombudsmen's Codes and to have clear processes in place for handling complaints and unreasonable conduct.

Update on Levelling Up Fund and Newtown Works

The cabinet noted the progress made in delivering the works through the use of the Levelling Up Funding for the Newtown Works development scheme. The cabinet also noted the requirement for changes to the MOU with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and the requirement for changes in the Grant Agreement between Ashford Borough Council (ABC) and Ashford International Development Company Limited (AIDC) for the Levelling Up Funding.

The cabinet were informed that the unallocated amount of £6.25m originally planned for the College facility will now be met by Ashford International Development Company and will be subject to a separate report on how this money is to be allocated.

Councillor Simon Betty, Cabinet Member for Commercial Property & Investment, said the Project Adjustment Request has been used to fund works necessary to preserve the listed buildings on this key brownfield site and to improve access.

Ashford Town Centre Market Review - Update

The cabinet noted the work of the Market Task Group and the positive progress that has been made to support the United Makers of Kent Food and Creative Market (Makers Market ). The cabinet also agreed to secure funding, from Reserves, of £10,000 for the future storage and access of the market gazebos, and noted the implementation of permanent pitches.

Councillor Heather Hayward said it was great to see the fantastic progress that the Makers Market have made, and she was sure the introduction of permanent pitches, especially in the bandstand area on weekdays, will only add to the vibrancy that Ashford Town Centre has to offer.

Other items

The cabinet also:

• Noted the Local Plan and Planning Policy Task Group – Notes of 16th July 2025.
• Received and noted the Schedule of Key Decisions to be Taken.