Agenda item

Councillor RM Hannaford (Portfolio Holder for Housing and Customer Access) and Councillor Owen (Portfolio Holder for Environment, Health and Wellbeing) will present half year reports and take questions.

Councillors Hannaford and Owen presented progress reports on priorities within theHousing and Customer Access Portfolio and the Environment, Health and Well Being Portfolio respectively. Responses to Members’ queries are set out below:

Housing and Customer Access

·         approximately a fifth of the City’s housing stock was in the private rented sector, a quarter of which was of poor standard; the introduction of the  Exeter Landlord’s Accreditation Training Scheme was therefore a positive step;

·         as provision of affordable homes remained a priority, the Council wished to continue its strong track record in this respect and to ensure that developers met the recently introduced 35% ratio of such homes in new developments. The Planning Inspector had advised that 35% of affordable housing was sensible;

·         notwithstanding the proposed Council house rent increase of 3.7%, rent levels compared favourable to other areas and this was a central tenet of the HRA Business Plan;

·         the importance of encouraging local, small and medium sized firms to tender for the various housing contracts was recognised;

·         local Members would be advised of the consultation process with developers during negotiations for CIL contributions to local communities. There would be a focus on site related infrastructure and affordable housing; and

·         the reduction of street begging was a priority, including the introduction of an alternative giving scheme, improved access to accommodation and treatment services for those wishing to engage and more robust enforcement. A poster campaign had been created to help educate the public on the dangers of giving cash to beggars and signs placed in car parks to advise that drug taking, sleeping etc. is illegal in car parks. An agreement was being sought from the Police that they are committed to working with the Council on this matter.

Environment, Health and Well Being

The Portfolio Holder explained that responsibility for the Parkwood Leisure contract had been transferred to the Portfolio Holder for Economy and Culture and that the Health and Wellbeing stream of work had been added to his portfolio.

·         the County Council had agreed to allocate a sum of money for the Council to determine its own regime of grass and weed cutting and a meeting was to be held with the Assistant Director Public Realm to discuss further;

·         an agreement had been reached with the taxi trade for continued funding of the Taxi Marshall Scheme on Saturday nights in 2014. At present, this could not be extended to cover Friday nights because of the cost;

·         a Help Zone trialled on 20 December to assist the public late at night/early morning had been very successful with 16 people helped. A debriefing for partners including the Police, Health Workers, Street Pastors etc. was to be held when consideration would also be given to funding a continuation of this scheme;

·         charging for the deposit of commercial waste at the recycling centre was appropriate. This was a County Council function;

·         the proliferation of betting shops in the City Centre was of concern, especially as they were categorised as financial services under planning legislation which made the change of use to such shops relatively straight forward. It was hoped that a proposal at Government level to introduce stricter controls would be progressed; and

·         the licensing regime could help control fly posting of events by licensed premises.

Scrutiny Committee - Community noted the reports.