Agenda item

CABINET MEMBER FOR CO-OPERATIVES AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The panel will hear from the Cabinet Member for Co-operatives and Community Development on his portfolio responsibilities with a view to identifying items for inclusion in its work programme.

Minutes:

The panel heard from the Cabinet Member for Co-operatives and Community Development who was in attendance to provide an overview of his portfolio responsibilities.  Councillor Penberthy reported on the following four areas within his portfolio which he felt could benefit from scrutiny –

 

·         Civil Society Policy – this will focus on how the council engages with the people of Plymouth, including neighbourhood working and localism, and is closely aligned to the Community Asset Transfer Policy which had been approved at the last meeting of City Council;

·         Safer Plymouth (former Plymouth Community Safety Partnership Safe and Strong Board) - works collaboratively with statutory partners to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.  In addition to its new name, the terms of reference are currently being redrafted and consideration given to its current responsibilities and structure;

·         Welfare Reform – it is known that the benefit cap being applied within the next few weeks will impact on 140 families in Plymouth.  This change,   combined with the introduction of direct payments to landlords, will result in many people finding it hard to manage financially.  The Council is working with its partners to find out what the implications of these major changes will mean for those directly affected and the for the City as a whole;

·         Housing Delivery (waiting lists, homelessness, private sector housing) - there are currently not enough large properties in the city and those that are around aren’t affordable.  A major housing conference is being hosted in the City later in the year where, amongst other things, consideration will be given to how we can work differently in terms of housing provision.

 

In response to questions raised, members were advised that –

 

(a)

 

responsibility for Strategic Housing lay with the Cabinet Member for Finance and fell outside of this panel’s terms of reference;

 

(b)

 

part of the on-going growth and development of the University of Plymouth includes provision for a large amount of student accommodation on campus which it is hoped will free up areas of the City which are currently occupied by students living off campus.  Discussions were on-going between the City Council and the City’s Registered Social Landlords to see if this would be a viable option for them to buy into.  However, care would need to be taken to ensure that any one community did not become overloaded and consideration would need to be given to how this could be mitigated and/or controlled;

 

(c)

 

in addition to a lack of three-plus bedroomed properties, there was also a shortage of one-bedroomed accommodation.  Where possible, mutual exchanges were negotiated between occupants looking to up/downsize;

 

(d)

 

it was too soon to comment on the effect of the ‘bedroom tax’ as no studies had been undertaken though it was acknowledged that there were anomalies in the system which would take time to work through;

 

(f)

 

ten sites had recently been identified and sold providing 47% of affordable housing for the City;

 

(g)

 

whilst the Council was working hard to address the issue of blocked sites, unfortunately, there was nothing they Council could do to free up property that was restricted by covenants as this was a matter for Government to address;

 

(h)

 

the Council worked with 24 Registered Social Landlords in the City, including specialist housing providers of which 500 units had recently been agreed with Tamar Housing.

 

Whilst Members welcomed the growth of the University, concern was expressed at the assumption being made that students would move onto campus and out of private rented accommodation.  As University accommodation was generally more expensive than that available in the private sector this could not be guaranteed.

 

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member for his portfolio overview and commented that many of issues highlighted had been identified as possible areas for scrutiny at the recent scrutiny conference.