Agenda item

The Tenancy Strategy consultation was presented by Gary Parsons.

A new law called the Localism Act says that local councils must develop a tenancy strategy by 15 January 2013. There are also other standards that councils and housing associations need to meet which say that the council must do some work in this area.

So the Council has drawn up a draft Tenancy Strategy and is asking people for their views about it in this consultation.

The Tenancy Strategy sets out what sorts of tenancy people can have when they rent property from the council. It says how long tenancies should be for, in future, to make the best use of housing stock. It is important for the council to think about the needs people have for housing because there’s not enough properties available to meet everyone’s needs. At the same time the population is increasing and people in Northampton and county are getting older and the number of people with disabilities is increasing. At the moment with more and more people asking to be housed, and not having enough housing for all of them, the housing register just keeps getting longer.

At the moment the council sees people who ask about housing. Officers fill in a form and tell people which Band they are being put into. Some of these people have little chance of ever getting a council house.

When people do get a council property, they get what’s called an “introductory tenancy” for their first year. At the end of that they get a secure tenancy for life. This can make it difficult to react quickly e.g. when people cause problems to other people living near them. It also means people are staying in the limited council accommodation while other people who are in more need may be seeking housing and having to wait.

In future the proposals are that in future people will still get introductory tenancies for 12 months. After that period, some people will get a 5 year tenancy. Some people e.g. retired people and people with disabilities, will get a secure tenancy for life. Some people will get a tenancy for less than 5 years – in exceptional circumstances e.g. in a situation in which the tenant may have been involved in anti-social behaviour and while the council doesn’t want to evict them it doesn’t want to give them 5 years but just to give them 2 years during which their behaviour should improve. If people have the ability to live in other accommodation the council wants to help them to do so, to keep the council property for those most in need.

The tenancy strategy will be reviewed every 12 months in case it can be improved.

The people at the meeting discussed the proposals.

John said he wondered if the proposals might create ghetto-like situations with council estates becoming full of vulnerable people with disabilities.

More information can be found at www.northampton.gov.uk/consultations.

People can take part in the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/nbctenancy