Notes from the Wiltshire Housing Partnership
Committee Room 5
25th January 2011
PRESENT:
Cllr Howard Greenman (Chair) Wiltshire Council HG
Graham Hogg, Director of Housing Wiltshire council GH
Nicole Smith, Head of Strategic Housing Wiltshire Council NS
Barry Hughes Selwood PM
Ann Cornelius Westlea AC
Jaki Stephen, PA to Graham Hogg Wiltshire Council JS
Mark Lane (for Steve Benson) Aster ML
Keith Holder Wiltshire Advice Partnership (WAP) KH
Dominic Cassidy WAP DC
Angie Rawlins, Head of Alocations and Options Wiltshire Council AR
Ruth Howard Wiltshire Council RH
Sarah Cardy Citizens Advice Bureau SC
1. / Introductions and ApologiesThe Chair, Howard Greenman (HG) opened the meeting and asked the Partnership to introduce themselves individually.
Apologies were received from Anne Knight, Verena Womersley and Clare Hennessey
2. / Action points from last meeting
There were no comments regarding the minutes of the last meeting.
3. / Wiltshire Tenants and Residents Voice
Ruth Howard (RH) advised that she would not normally attend WHP as we have two tenant representatives who will be attending but who had sent their apologies for today’s meeting. RH confirmed she has now actioned the request to set up a Wiltshire Wide Tenants Forum. Invites have been sent to all RSLs. The group is small at the moment with nine landlords currently represented. Tenants are changing due to restructures and they are currently trying to raise the profile of the forum. The AGM is scheduled to take place on 9th May 2011 at the Rugby Club in Devizes when a constitution will be approved.
4. / WAP Report – Homelessness and Options
Keith Holder (KH) thanked the chair for the invitation and opportunity to present the report on Homelessness and Options and handed over to Dominic Cassidy (DC) for the presentation. DC explained the context and purpose of the report before explaining the key findings and conclusions.
HG asked for confirmation of the report being in the public domain. DC confirmed that it wasn’t as yet but would be soon together with the appendices. HG stated that it would be helpful if WHP knew who the clients were and DC confirmed that although this had been requested from the Council officer, the partnership had refused to disclose and confirmed that this information was confidential and could not be released. HG expressed surprise that the same approach had not been afforded to officers of the council and highlighted this fact in the appendices. DC apologised for this error and confirmed that the officer’s name would be removed. HG raised concerns that the research was carried out some 16/17 months previously and during the first year of becoming a unitary authority. It was noted that the report was out of date and other members of WHP questioned the credibility of the report and as a result stated that the report should not be placed in the public domain as it was not fit for purpose. DC confirmed that, although the issues raised in the report were out of date, he felt that the same issues were still being experienced by customers. HG asked if further research had been carried out to back up this statement, and DC confirmed that no further assessment or research had been carried out on the housing options service to justify his last statement.
GH stated that this could potentially be a genuine survey or indepth analysis of complaints and quoted the report. GH further stated that if such behaviour has taken place then he would expect the officers in question be reported. GH would like to suggest that a way to take this forward is to conduct a proper survey with perhaps a mystery shopper exercise and that more robust research is carried out in partneship with Wiltshire Council.
Sarah Cardy (SC) said it was important to find a way forward to provide a good service. DC confirmed that various advisors had contributed to the report. AR stated that the case studies cannot be reported as evidence as none had been verified. The case studies were based on heresay and, as a result, a balanced report had not been produced.
AR advised, that although meetings had been held between WAP and Wiltshire Council, the main body of the report, which was based around the case studies, had not been changed. AR confirmed that, despite being asked to comment on the new recommendations, the WAP chose not to consider her comments. HG stated that he did not think the report was fit for purpose and asked that WAP and AR meet and identify the issues that need to be looked at. AR suggested that the HLGs should pick this up and work in partnership to idenfity gaps and work together to improve the service delivery of customers accessing our services. AR suggested that as SC sat on WHP and HLG, she would be able to feed up and down to the relevant group on behalf of the voluntary sector. HG confirmed his agreement to this. Cllr John Brady to be invited to the next WHP meeting scheduled for March 2011
5. / Housing Strategy
NS confirmed that the Housing Strategy was completed and was ready for full consultation at the beginning on November 2010 however due to announced government changes / management re-structure and reductions in funding the consultation was suspended.
We have now received confirmation that we can proceed with the three month consultation period for the Housing Strategy with just making minor amendments to confirm that we acknowledge the current consultation documents and potential future changes and that the strategy will be reviewed within its first year to reflect all changes.
ACTION: NS will circulate to WHP the current version and will work on making those minor amendments before we finalise the document for consultation.
6. / Fairer Future Consultation Document
GH commented on the response from Wiltshire Council to this consultation document. SC advised that CAB had done one nationally and other RSLs had also responded GH asked that the councils repsonse be circulated with the minutes of this meeting and that we would also ask that other responses be sent in to GH for collection on a shared drive for future reference when formulating the tenancy startegy. ACTION: JS to circulate Wiltshire Council consultation response. RH advised that the WTRBV response had been very different and that the group had strong feelings on the matter. Following discussions with members it was agreed that a separate meeting would be arranged to discuss the way forward in response to the consultation document so that appropriate work can be started early. ACTION: All – consultation responses to go to JS to collate and JS to arrange an urgent meeting to discuss the impact of the proposed changes and agree a way forward.
7. / Child Poverty Consultation
NS confirmed that Wiltshire Council are required to publish a child poverty strategy and has been part of the workinggroup who developed it. It is recognised thatgood quality housing and neighbourhoods helps to reduce child poverty. The consultation has now commenced and will finish on 4 April 2011.There is a consultation event planned for 23 March from 9.30 - 12.30 at the Corn Exchange, NS will be attending on behalf of housing and the WHP but other members were also invited to attend.If any WHP member wanted to attend they should confirm with NS in advance to secure a place at the event.It was agreed that each organisation would submit a response howevercomments should be sent to NS to formulate a housing response from the partnership. This will then be includedon the agenda of the next WHP meeting in March.
10. / Date and time of next meeting: 23rd March – 2pm, Committee Room 8, County Hall.
13