Agenda item

The Minutes from the meeting of the Housing & Customer Services Working Group held on 5 November 2020 are attached and contain recommendations for Cabinet to consider at:

·         Minute 12 [Additional and Selective Licensing Scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation] – to view the Officer’s report – please click on this link – Report and Appendix

·         Minute 13 [Water Safety Policy] – to view the Officer’s report - please click on this link – Report and Appendix

·         Minute 14 [Gas Safety Policy – to view the Officer’s report – please click on this link - Report and Appendix

Minute 12 – Additional and Selective Licensing Schemes for Houses in Multiple Occupation

The Cabinet

            RESOLVED

            That Officers continue to research and gather further evidence to help support whether additional HMO Licensing (Housing Act 2004, s.56-60) or selective licensing of the private rented sector (Housing Act 2004, s 80-84) is justified.

The Cabinet

            RECOMMEND TO FULL COUNCIL

            That approval be sought for a supplementary estimate of up to £20,000 (which equates to a Band D Council Tax equivalent of £0.32) to commission the services and expertise to  undertake the appropriate research and collation of data in order to support whether additional HMO Licensing or selective licensing of the private rented sector is justified.

Minute 14 – Water Hygiene Policy and Management Plan

The Cabinet

            RESOLVED – That

(1)  The Water Safety Policy 2020 be adopted; and

(2)  Delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Residential Services in conjunction with the Cabinet Member for Residential Services to make minor changes to the Policy and Plan.

Minute 15 – Gas Safety Policy and Management Plan

The Cabinet

            RESOLVED – That

(1)  The Gas Safety Policy – October 2020 be approved; and

(2)  Delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Residential Services in conjunction with the Cabinet Member for Residential Services and the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Housing & Customer Services Working Group to make minor changes to the Policy.

Cabinet considered the minutes from the meeting of the Housing & Customer Services Working Group held on 5 November 2020 and were alerted to a range of recommendations.

            The Cabinet Member for Technical Services, Councillor Stanley, confirmed that at Minute 12 [Additional and Selective Licensing Schemes for Houses in Multiple Occupation] there were two recommendations to consider.  Councillor Stanley provided some background to this item by reminding Councillors that earlier in the year, Full Council had approved a motion requesting Officers explore options for introducing controls on (1) the quality of HMOs; and (2) the number of HMOs.  A separate report produced by the Planning Policy team had been considered by the Development Control Committee on 25 November 2020 regarding the number of HMOs. The Committee had agreed to make a recommendation to Full Council.

What was for Cabinet to consider was a recommendation by the Housing and Customer Services Working Group which related to the quality of HMOs in the District. The private sector housing team currently undertook proactive inspections to identify and assess the significance of hazards only in those HMOs that fell within the mandatory HMO licensing regime. Simply put, the HMOs that currently required a licence were those with five or more people from more than one household sharing facilities. The cost of undertaking these inspections could be recovered by the Council by way of licence fee payable by the HMO landlord. Where significant hazards were identified, the team required landlords to make improvements.  

The private sector housing team had not undertaken proactive inspections of the private rented sector properties outside of the mandatory HMO licensing regime since 2012. The inspection programme that existed prior to that time had been ended in response to a need to make savings. HMOs were however inspected where concerns were raised by tenants. Expanding the inspection programme would increase the number of HMOs where Officers could ensure housing standards met the minimum legal requirements.

There were two potential licensing regimes that could be introduced to do this: Additional Licensing (of HMOs) and Selective Licensing (of the whole private rented sector within a specific area). Each regime allowed the resourcing of the inspection programme to be recovered by way of a licensing fee from the private sector landlords. Each licensing regime had different criteria which must be satisfied in order to introduce it. At present there was insufficient evidence that the criteria were satisfied.

Given the potential improvements that could be made to the quality of HMOs from expanding the inspection programme by introducing a licensing regime, it had been recommended by the Working Group that [paraphrased rather than verbatim] (1) Cabinet agree Officers continue to research and gather evidence to establish if the criteria for either is satisfied, and (2) that Cabinet asks Full Council for a supplementary estimate of 20K in order to procure data modelling services for which licensing regime is met work on exploring.”

            The Cabinet

                        RESOLVED

That Officers continue to research and gather further evidence to help support whether additional HMO Licensing (Housing Act 2004, s.56-60) or selective licensing of the private rented sector (Housing Act 2004, s 80-84) is justified.

            The Cabinet also

                        RECOMMEND TO FULL COUNCIL

That approval be sought for a supplementary estimate of up to £20,000 (which equates to a Band D Council Tax equivalent of £0.32) to commission the services and expertise to  undertake the appropriate research and collation of data in order to support whether additional HMO Licensing or selective licensing of the private rented sector is justified.

The next recommendation for Cabinet to consider was at Minute 14 [Water Hygiene Policy and Management Plan] which was presented by the Cabinet Member for Residential Services, Councillor Mrs Gregory.

The Cabinet

            RESOLVED – That

(1)  The Water Safety Policy 2020 be adopted; and

(2)          Delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Residential Services in conjunction with the Cabinet Member for Residential Services to make minor changes to the Policy and Plan.

Councillor Mrs Gregory then alerted Cabinet to the final set of recommendations at Minute 15 [Gas Safety Policy and Management Plan.

The Cabinet

            RESOLVED – That

(1)          The Gas Safety Policy – October 2020 be approved; and

(2)          Delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Residential Services in conjunction with the Cabinet Member for Residential Services and the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Housing & Customer Services Working Group to make minor changes to the Policy.

The Cabinet confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/042/14122020, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.