582 Adoption of a new Housing Assistance Policy PDF 293 KB
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Minutes:
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.
178 Adoption of a new Housing Assistance Policy PDF 185 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Mr Bob Porter, Head of Housing & Planning introduced the item for debate and made the following points:
Responding to the presentation Members of the Panel made comments and asked questions as follows:
Mr Porter responded as follows: