Issue - meetings

The Council had a mandatory duty to provide Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs for short) to people who qualify for assistance. The council was able to enhance this mandatory assistance, but only if the additional assistance offered was set out in the council’s published Housing Assistance Policy. The Council’s current Housing Assistance Policy required updating as it was developed at a time when the available resources were not sufficient to meet the need for mandatory DFGs and the Council held a waiting list.

Funding for DFGs was now included within the Better Care Fund and there was greater flexibility for councils to use the funding to support wider health and social care objectives, in additional to providing mandatory grants. This could include services to assist people in moving out of hospital more quickly or to prevent them from having to move into residential or nursing care.

Government funding for DFGs, through the Better Care Fund, had increased over time and totals were just over £3m for the current year. It was now possible to consider additional services to support people with disabilities.

The Council also had funds from the repayment of loans to owners and landlords that could be recycled to assist with the improvement of private sector homes in the district. This funding was originally provided by central government to support investment into private sector housing. Cabinet proposed to allocate the currently available balances to these services over the coming 3 years, whilst retaining the ability to review this arrangement on an annual basis.

The new policy represented a great opportunity to enhance the assistance provided to people living in the private sector, both rented and owner occupied. It also allowed for the cost of administering the grant programme to also be funded, including services provided by both the Council and the Home Improvement Agency.

Cabinet acknowledged and agreed the recommendation from the Overview & Scrutiny Panel that “Cabinet write to Kent County Council to request that KCC ring fenced the £405k for use by Thanet residents.”

Councillor Game proposed, Councillor David Saunders seconded and Cabinet agreed to:

1. Approve the draft of the Housing Assistance and Disabled Adaptations Policy attached (Annex 1) of this report;

2. Delegate authority to the Head of Housing and Planning in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Neighbourhoods to make any minor changes to the policy and from time to time when needed.

Mr Bob Porter, Head of Housing & Planning introduced the item for debate and made the following points:

• The Council had a duty to provide disabled facilities grants to residents who required assistance with the adaptations to their properties;
• Councils have a mandatory duty to offer disabled facilities grants, up to £30k to qualifying applicants;
• Grants are funded by a grant from government;
• The current policy was put in place at a time when there were significant resource limitations for the demand;
• However the council no longer has a waiting list;
• The current funding allows greater flexibility to councils to offer further discretionary assistance;
• The new policy proposes a new service to assist people to return home from hospital more quickly and an enhanced handyman service;
• The new policy also proposes a new grant for energy efficiency improvements in certain circumstances and extends the current minor repairs grants;
• The new policy provides for the cost of administering grants to be met from the DFG funding.

Responding to the presentation Members of the Panel made comments and asked questions as follows:

• What was the proportionality between the grants and loans under this policy?
• Did the policy assist those under hardship conditions?
• Did the policy cover council tenants?
• Had council considered assisting local families to buy the properties they lived in, where appropriate?
• How easy was it to access these grants?
• Was the information on these grants readily available to the public?
• Members welcomed the good news that the council had cleared the backlog for those waiting for assistance under these grants and that the service was expanding;
• How was the council working with KCC and CCG regarding meeting the threshold required for an individual to get care support?
• Why were elected Members not involved in the process?
• In the report, there were indications that KCC had top sliced £405k for use on other projects. Were these funds ring fenced for use for Thanet residents’ needs?
• Who scrutinised the performance of the service providers under this scheme?
• Could more clarity be provided about under what circumstances were individuals in receipt of the DFGs required to pay back?

Mr Porter responded as follows:

• Mandatory facilities grants were separate from loans;
• The policy did allow for hardships;
• Later in the year, a new policy will be presented to Cabinet and it will also cover providing adaptations to council tenants houses which were as generous as those provided to non council tenants;
• Council provides loans of up to £20k for households buying an empty property in Cliftonville to refurbish for owner occupation;
• Professionals working with individuals due for discharge from hospitals or others who required adaptations to their homes would normally advise the individuals about these grants;
• There can be delays in the completion of occupational therapist assessments and the new policy enables some additional dedicated resources to speed up this process;
• The funding proposals are profiled over three years, using the resources currently available;
• Accessing these grants is means tested. However the council would always  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178