Agenda item

Garry Newton, Housing Development Intelligence Co-ordinator, to present the consultation to the Board

The Chair invited Garry Newton, Housing Development Intelligence Co-ordinator to present the 2025 to 2028 Housing Strategy consultation.

It was outlined that there was a 30 year vision which had commenced in 2012, and underwent refresh every 3 years to ensure the priorities within the Strategy remained current and relevant.  The intention was to publish the 2025-2028 Housing Strategy this year.

Consultation commenced in August 2024 and ran over 12 weeks.  This included an online survey and attendance at various events. It was determined that the following aims of the 30 year vision remained relevant:

-         People living in high quality homes, whether in social rented, private rented or home ownership sector.

-         Rotherham Council playing its part by being the best housing provider in the country, delivering high quality services and support, and peaceful and well managed neighbourhoods.

-         A smaller gap between the most and least disadvantaged neighbourhoods, so that all of Rotherham’s people can live in safe, healthy and vibrant communities.

-         No households living in homes that are poor in terms of energy efficiency.

A fifth aim had been introduced following consultation in 2015:

-         Create a revitalised town centre with a new urban community.

The priorities in the current Strategy were:

1.      High Quality New Homes

2.      Affordable Housing To Meet Local Need

3.      Investing In Existing Homes

4.      Bringing Empty Homes Back Into Use

5.      Supporting People To Live Independently

6.      Strengthening Communities

The online survey garnered 337 responses, which provided a broad representation of the Borough both geographically and demographically which was pleasing.  Affordable hosing remained the highest priority for most groups and bringing empty homes back into use was a close second.

There was also a good degree of engagement at the Rotherham Show, which broadly reflected the same outcomes in terms of priorities as the online survey.

Council housing stock was decreasing due to the Right To Buy scheme, whilst house prices had increased, which was the expected future trajectory, alongside rental fees.  Data indicated that the gap between household income and property prices had widened significantly between the late 1990’s and the present day from 2.7 times average income to 5.5, and a spike in private rental was also seen over the last few years.

In the first draft of the new Strategy, the current 6 priorities were combined into 4:

1.      Investing in existing homes: Improving the safety, quality and energy efficiency of existing homes.

2.      High quality new homes and affordable housing to meet local need: Building more high quality, sustainable and affordable new homes.

3.      Supporting people to live independently: Supporting our residents to live independently.

4.      Strengthening communities and bringing empty homes back into use: Ensuring that our neighbourhoods are safe, happy and thriving.

There were 3 themes throughout the document:

-         Improving Health

-         Reducing Carbon Emissions

-         Reducing Inequalities

Those interlinked themes were included due to the acknowledged link between housing and health such as damp and mould issues being addressed leading to reduced incidence of respiratory illness and the effect of insulating homes on reducing mental stress associated with rising the cost of energy bills and so on.

The next steps were for internal reviews through the relevant Directorate Leadership Teams, with the expectation that the draft would be finalised in February and passed for approval in March/April 2025.

The Chair thanked the Housing Development Intelligence Co-ordinator for the presentation and invited questions and comments from members.

The following points were made and issues raised and responded to during the discussion that followed:

-         It was important for the NHS to understand housing plans 3-4 years in advance to ensure that GP services and Dentistry needs were met.  The recent Waverley housing development was cited as an example where early NHS involvement and understanding of population changes over time had facilitated effective planning of community services.

-         It was felt that housing conditions in the private rental sector were notably poor and contributing to ill health.  The licensing scheme in place was discussed in terms of how this could influence property standards and it was noted that measures in the Renters Reform Bill were intended to address some of the issues observed within the sector.

-         There was discussion around the opportunity for Health and Wellbeing Board members to influence contents of the final Strategy prior to approval, which was as set out in the timeline shared as part of the next steps.

-         A discussion took place in relation the duration of the 30 year vision for which households were expected to live with poor energy efficiency. It was explained that there was a target for all Council homes to achieve EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) C rating by 2030, with a wider net zero target for the Borough by 2040.  A stock condition survey was being undertaken to establish the current position and a large scale decarbonisation project was underway in Maltby.

-         The impact of the SYMCA (South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority) Safe Place To Sleep initiative when resources were being placed into properties that were affected by damp and mould or other issues was discussed. It was explained that the Council’s Damp and Mould Policy had dramatically sped up Council repairs, whilst issues in  the private rental sector were harder to address.

-         It was noted that housing intelligence indicated that 30% of first time buyers were priced out of the market and the measures within the Strategy aimed to address the challenge that presented were discussed, namely building more affordable housing.  It was also outlined that planning regulations in place for developments of more than 10 homes required 25% of builds to represent affordable housing, which was further supplemented by shared ownership schemes.

Resolved:-  That the Health and Wellbeing Board noted the presentation.