Issue - meetings

(a)       That the current levels of housing need across the County and the growing pressures regarding social housing which was not aligned with the supply of available homes locally be noted; and

(b)       That the applicant feedback following the annual Customer Satisfaction Survey results for the Common Housing Register and Housing Advice function be noted.

The Chief Officer (Housing and Communities) introduced a report to outline the current levels of housing need across the County and the disparity with the availability of social housing which was not increasing at the same rate as the levels of housing needs that are prevalent within our communities.

The Housing & Prevention Service Manager reported that the Single Access Route to Housing (SARTH) was a partnership between all the major providers of social housing in North Wales, covering the local authority areas of Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire.  The service to applicants included the housing triage assessment, housing

solutions triage, for those who present as homeless or at risk of homelessness, and a wide range of housing options advice.  The service also managed all the applicants accepted onto the Common Housing Register once a clearly evidenced housing need had been identified.  Only those applicants with a housing need were accepted onto the Housing Register, but all applicants benefited from housing options advice.

            The Housing & Prevention Service Manager outlined future Policy direction for Social Housing allocations, as detailed within the report, and advised that Consultation on a White Paper on Ending Homelessness in Wales had recently closed.  When specifically looking at allocations and social housing application the White Paper had considered a piece of research ‘Allocations: Understanding more, in the context of homelessness in Wales’ which sought to understand the performance of social housing allocations in relation to the prevention and relief of homelessness.

            The Housing & Prevention Service Manager referred to Housing Needs, as detailed in the report, and reported that the social housing register was increasing and as such waiting times for properties were becoming longer.  There were 1,816 households on the Common Housing Register at the end of Q1 in the 2020/2021 period.  And as evidenced in the chart within the report, below demand had grown in

the following years and the current number of eligible households on the Common Housing Register at the end of Q3 2023/2024 was 1,983 as at December 2023.  The breakdown of data was found at Appendix 1 of the report.

An annual satisfaction survey was now completed for the Common Housing

Register Service and attached at Appendix 2 of the report were the headline findings of the survey.  All applicants were invited to engage in the survey and a total of

210 responses were received.  Headline satisfaction data confirmed that when first approaching the Housing Register & Advice Team 51% of applicants felt the service offered was excellent (17%) or good (34%).

In response to a question from Councillor Rosetta Dolphin on what housing stock there was across the Council, including Housing Association partners, the Housing and Prevention Senior Manager agreed to circulate this information following the meeting.

Councillor Dale Selvester asked, in regard to cleansing the register, how often this was carried out throughout the year.  He referred to the specialist housing needs, as detailed in the report, and asked if there was a specialist Occupational Therapist (OT) who worked with the Housing Portfolio  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72