Issue - meetings

Members considered the notice of motion that was referred to Cabinet by Full Council on 13 October 2022. Cabinet confirmed the Council’s duty to provide good quality temporary accommodation was clear whilst managing the cost of this. Cabinet agreed that it was essential to ensure provision of the best possible service to homeless households. It was for these reasons that Cabinet had already supported the conversion of Foy House in Margate to provide temporary accommodation for 8 households and had proposed a budget including an additional capital allocation of £2.2m, which incorporated the council’s 2023/24 allocation of new Homes Bonus, for a further temporary accommodation project in the Council’s budget proposals for 2023/24.

The council had also invested in an expanded homelessness prevention service and recommended additional resources for homelessness for 2023/24 to help respond to the growing pressures as a result of the cost of living crises and the increasing costs and difficulty in accessing the private rented sector. Preventing homelessness was both more cost effective and ensured a better outcome for households at risk of losing their home. Cabinet had also reaffirmed its commitment to continuing the council’s programme of building new council homes for rent, investing over £8m each year over the coming 10 years. The answer to the pressures on temporary accommodation was not more temporary accommodation, but more permanent affordable homes. It was for this reason that Cabinet was asked to reject the notice of motion.

Councillor Whitehead and Councillor Austin spoke under Council Procedure Rule 20.1.

Councillor Jill Bayford proposed, Councillor Kup seconded and Cabinet agreed the following, to:

1.  Reject the notice of motion, and

2.  Support the response to the Notice of Motion on Temporary Accommodation set out in this report.

Cabinet discussed the notice of motion and Members were advised that the quality of bathing waters around Thanet was a critical part of the district’s appeal to visitors and tourists and an essential part of the local visitor economy. There were 13 designated bathing waters in Thanet and data about water quality was last published in November 2022. The results were published against raised standards for two bacteria types and showed that Thanet has 8 beaches rated as excellent.

Cabinet noted that the notice of motion presented to Council was fundamentally flawed in that the evidence demonstrates that over the last few years bathing water quality had been improving. That said, Members also noted that there were still instances of sewerage release, mainly as a result of an ageing network of combined sewers, combined with periods of heavy rain. During these incidents approximately 90% of the content was rainwater and surface water run-off.

Members acknowledged that there was always room for further improvement. Therefore, although the report was recommending to Cabinet that the motion be rejected, Cabinet would continue to work with statutory partners to drive through improvement. For example, Cabinet was already working with Southern Water and KCC to improve drainage within the district. The project at George Park in Westbrook was a successful example of this and further projects were planned, including at Dane Park in Margate to remove surface water from the network.

The following Members spoke under Council Procedure Rule 20.1:

Councillor Garner;

Councillor Everitt;

Councillor Wing;

Councillor Austin.

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

1. Reject the Notice of Motion; and

2. Support the specific responses to the details of the Notice of Motion as set out in section 2.10, 2.11 and 2.12 to the Cabinet report.

It was proposed by Councillor Whitehead and seconded by Councillor Everitt that:

“As we are all aware there is a spiralling housing crisis in Thanet, and levels of private sector evictions are increasing, especially within low income households.

In light of this rise in evictions, and the impossibility of finding and maintaining a private rental property on the current LHA allowance, our need for temporary housing to keep families in area is continually growing. As a Council we acknowledge and recognise the need for purchase and creation of further temporary housing units now, before further inflation makes the necessary growth of our in house provision impossible, and urge Cabinet to bring forward such plans.”

In accordance with council procedure rule 3.7, Councillor Jill Bayford provided a response to the motion.

Members voted not to debate the motion; therefore the motion was forwarded to Cabinet without debate as it related to a Cabinet function.