Agenda and minutes

In the absence of the Chairman, and without an appointed Vice-Chairman, the committee elected a member to preside.

Councillor Palmer moved, and Councillor Hill seconded, that Councillor Fairweather be appointed to preside at the meeting.

RESOLVED – That Councillor Fairweather be appointed to preside at the meeting.

Councillor Fairweather took the chair for the remainder of the meeting.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors, Everitt, Fitzsimmon, Funnell and Pope.

To receive any declarations of interest by members of the Council in items on the agenda. For any advice on declarations of interest, please contact the Monitoring Officer before the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To note any Visiting Members or members of the public wishing to speak, of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Meeting Procedure Rule 18 and 19, and which items they wish to speak on.

There were no members of the public or visiting Members of the Council registered to speak.

To approve the minutes of a previous meeting as a correct record. The only issue relating to the minutes that can be discussed is their accuracy.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting dated Wednesday 7 September 2022 be recorded as a true record.

RESOLVED: That the Forward Plan as at Tuesday 27 September 2022, be noted.

Councillor Hugo Pound, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning gave an overview of the scheme and introduced Stuart Clifton, Housing Services Manager who presented the report as per the agenda.

Discussion and questions from Members and Officer clarification included:

              i.        Within the Allocation Scheme there was qualifying criteria for local connection and it was confirmed that the proposed changes to the allocation scheme tightened those requirements, and still allowed for exemptions which included those required by statute, members of armed forces and extended to care leavers.

             ii.        It was confirmed that some properties had no local connection criteria set and were available for all  applicants to bid on. However, some properties and developments secured under Section 106 Agreements had, as part of a condition that those properties were allocated to people with a local connection to the parish area before opened up to the wider Borough.

            iii.        An explanation of Transfer Tenants, Tenants that mutually exchange and how those tied into local connection was given.

           iv.        It was confirmed that the financial assessment criteria in section 6.2 was within the existing scheme that had been in operation since 2013. What was proposed through the public consultation was to seek feedback specifically around those financial limits and whether they should be amended and what they should be.

             v.        Thanks were given to Stuart for the work he had done.

           vi.        The work of the Communities and Economic Cabinet Advisory Board and the Housing Advisory Panel which was a cross party team was recognised and the recommended changes they had seen on the local connection criteria and the financial assessment criteria that it would go to public response and consultation and the stakeholders input.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the recommendations to Cabinet as set out in the report be supported.

To consider any other items which the Chairman decides are urgent, for the reasons to be stated, in accordance with Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business for consideration.

To note that the date of the next scheduled meeting is Wednesday 9 November 2022.

The next meeting was scheduled to take place on Wednesday 9 November 2022.