Agenda item

To receive the report of the Strategic Director People and Communities.

The Strategic Director People and Communities presented the report making the following points:  

• the government had published its long-awaited Plan to End Homelessness in December 2025 and its goals aligned with those established locally following the Council’s own review work;  

• a strategic data review was undertaken early in 2025 which identified systemic issues set out in the presentations but also offered potential solutions;  

• historically homelessness funding streams from the government had been   sporadic and short-term, which had hindered long-term strategic planning;  

• issues seen in Exeter were reflected nationally, although the city had a notable population of younger, single people who were in a cycle of repeat homeless  found Exeter a relatively safe place to be street-attached;  

• the Council was not the only commissioner of supported housing in the city, the NHS, Social Services and criminal justice agencies also commissioned accommodation-based services;

• when the Council had greater control of funding in previous years, homelessness prevention outcomes were stronger; 

• there was a lack of relationship with the private rental sector;  

• phase one of the team restructure had been completed, and the remainder would be completed by the end of April;  

• staff feedback suggested that a single casework service was desired;  

• the ring-fenced homeless prevention grant was £750,000 less than modelled, however, the overall funding formula was generous;  

• the budget proposal would show a wish to allocate an appropriate amount of funding to homelessness prevention;  

• staff head count would be increased, with fewer senior managers and more frontline housing officers; and  

• new burdens funding must be spent on staffing.

The Strategic Director People and Communities responded to Members’ questions in the following terms:  

• our transformation plans were evidenced based and it was envisaged that any future authority would want to continue this work;  

• new legislation would enable more engagement with private sector landlords and tenants, with the council now mandated to undertake a mediation role to sustain and prevent breakdown of relationships and tenancies between private sector landlords and their tenants;

• there were new national outcome frameworks coming forward with specific metrics that reflected the stated outcomes our local plans were aiming to achieve such as the national target to reduce rough sleeping, by eradicating one-night rough sleeping and focus on long term rough sleepers who were usually individuals with complex needs; 
• the new service would reduce fragmentation and stabilise staffing as it would have all case management workers together in one team on substantive contracts as opposed to the short and fixed term contracts the historic short-term funding had necessitated;
• service providers would be invited to provide feedback on the new service specifications and framework agreements prior to the commencement of the formal procurement process;

• providers could bid to join the framework which set quality standards and pricing providing a more cost effective and flexible approach for the council as commissioner as money would not get tied into block contracts and a provider not meeting the quality standards would not get any replacement frameworks. This had not been used in this area of work before in Exeter and the Council were following best practice used by other councils;  

• in relation to question about money advice services it was explained that a  new crisis resilience service would be commissioned with new funding from the government created from the remodelling of the National Household Support Grant which would come via Devon County Council.  A specification for this new service would go out for procurement in due course;

• reducing the number of evictions for temporary accommodation and putting mechanisms in place to prevent the most vulnerable being put on the street would be addressed through ongoing casework support which would continue when someone was sustainably housed. Providers on the new framework would have additional responsibilities and incentives to mitigate evictions;

• there was an extract on page 35 of the report that calculated the cost of tolerating homelessness nationally;  

• the belief that the homeless in Exeter were predominantly from other areas was incorrect, most had a connection with Exeter, if not, Devon. People came to Exeter from other areas in Devon as the city had excellent services and charities supporting vulnerable people;  

• the prison early release scheme caused problems in the autumn as there was short notice and a high volume of releases;
• it may be beneficial for scrutiny to look at what other agencies within the city were doing; and

• a new national target which would be monitored was to reduce entrenched rough sleeping by 50%.

The Chair proposed an amendment, seconded by Councillor Payne to the recommendations in the following terms:  

• recommendation 2.1 be removed and that progress be noted in September instead;  

• 2.2 - remove “note the need to revisit” and replace with “contribute to the development of”; and  

• 2.3 – replace “note” with “support”, with addition of “and the systemic issues and barriers to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping in Exeter.”  

Following a unanimous vote, the recommendations as amended were CARRIED.  

RESOLVED that the Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee: 

• Contribute to the development of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Prevention Strategy during 2026 in response to the National Plan to End Homelessness (2005) and new legislation; and 

• Support the organisational and commissioning work already underway to start to address the new requirements and the systemic issues and barriers to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping in Exeter.