2. The Corporate Context
Bath and North East Somerset Council’s vision is ‘Making
Bath and North East Somerset a better place to live, work and
visit’. To work towards this vision, the following strategic
objectives have been adopted:
- To improve the quality of life and the environment
- To build a healthier and safer community
- To promote a thriving economic community and combat
poverty
- To encourage and support life-long learning
- To deliver quality and accessible services
All of these objectives can be said to have relevance to housing
which in turn directly influences the general well-being of the
community. Whilst this has long been the acknowledged, this
principle is now central to much of the work carried out within
Strategic Housing Services, in its work with other Services within
Bath and North East Somerset and in work done in partnership
with other organisations.
In recognition of this, the Housing Strategy takes into account
a range of other strategies and policies designed to enhance the
environment and meet need. Examples of this are:
Local Strategic Partnership
The Corporate Projects Team's role is to focus on cross-cutting
and corporate initiatives which have been identified as key
priorities. Particular attention this year has been paid to
reviewing and strengthening partnership working, developing our
work on Social Inclusion and preparing for the negotiation of a
Local Public Service Agreement.
Housing affordability within Bath & North East Somerset has
become an increasingly important issue in the past year. We
have recently established a Local Strategic Partnership for the
area and housing has been identified as being a crucial component
of its emerging "key partnership" arrangements. As a result,
this issue will be explored as part of the development of the
Community Strategy, which is planned to be available in April
2003.
Other projects undertaken relating to housing have included
working with Somer Community Housing Trust on the Snow Hill
Community Consultation and building the detail of a Local Public
Service Agreement. Improvement to performance in the use of Bed and
Breakfast accommodation for homeless households has already been
identified as one of the target themes. Reducing the risk of
fire in Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) is another target
theme and work has already been done on this. The Local
Strategic Partnership has a key role in co-ordinating strategies
across Bath & North East Somerset. It is important to
recognise that, as it develops, the Housing Strategy will not only
inform the Community Strategy but will take from it the priorities
which are identified by the Local Strategic Partnership.
The LSP will be developing a range of Key Partnerships and
Housing will be one of them. The Housing representative on
the LSP is required by the terms of reference to lead within the
Key Partnership on issues, themes and priorities that the LSP has
agreed. These will be highlighted initially by the Key
Partnership to the LSP. The emphasis is on finding ways to
think and act creatively to link together the activities of the Key
Partnerships and the LSP.
The Housing strategy therefore emerges as the principle document
for capturing this activity.
Improvements to partnership working have been identified as a
key component for future work, building on the progress made on the
LSP and PSA. In addition, the Council will continue to focus
on enhancing service delivery in housing - whether through
e-government initiatives (such as Choice-Based Lettings, which is a
key component of our Customer Access Programme) or through seeking
Charter Mark accreditation for Housing Services, in line with
Council policy.
The Community Strategy
Increasingly, the Council will work with partners to achieve the
Corporate aims set out above. To facilitate this, the Council
is developing a Community Strategy. This will establish a 10
- 15 year vision for our local communities, setting out the key
priorities for improving quality of life and developing Council and
other major services. The Community Strategy will co-ordinate
Council activities with those of other public, private and
voluntary sector organisations. It will be drawn up with wide
public involvement and through a new "Local Strategic Partnership"
with key private and public sector service providers.
The Local Plan
The Council's District-wide Local Plan for the period up to 2011
was published for public comment in 2002. Housing is a major
policy area in the Plan and makes provision for 6,200 dwellings
between 1996-2011 to meet the requirements of the Joint Replacement
Structure Plan.
Joint working between Planning and Housing Services has meant
formulation of planning policies that take account of housing need
without compromising the need to protect the local environment with
the objective of achieving sustainable patterns of development.
The Local Plan is the policy vehicle for delivering all forms of
housing in the District including open market housing and
affordable homes, the latter usually being secured by the use of
planning obligations (Section 106 agreements). In addition
policies will help ensure the right mix, size and type of dwellings
are provided and that high standards of design are met. These
policies will include requirements around accessibility, energy and
security objectives, both for open market and affordable
housing.
The Council's objectives in respect of affordable housing and
open market housing cannot be achieved in isolation and without
reference to planning policy. In recognition of this the
Council will continue to strengthen links and joint working between
planning policy and housing services, thus delivering an integrated
approach to meeting the Council's housing objectives through the
Housing Strategy and Local Plan.
Development Control
Ultimately the successful implementation of both Housing
Strategy and Planning Policy objectives on a range of housing
issues will depend on the Planning Development Control Process, and
associated legal input (Section 106 agreements). Strategic
Housing Services therefore comment and advise on planning
applications relevant to the delivery of Housing Strategy
objectives, with particular emphasis on provision of affordable
homes on larger housing developments. Strategic Housing
Services also actively participate in pre-application submissions
considered through the Planning Services Development Team
approach. In addition Planning Services are represented at
the Housing Association Joint Commissioning Meetings or where other
specific housing issues are under discussion. The
implementation of the Housing Strategy will continue to be through
these means.
Community Safety Strategy
The provision of safe, secure, and where necessary, supported
accommodation is essential to achieving the Council’s corporate
objective of building a healthier and safer community. There
are a number of areas in which the Housing Strategy can contribute
to achieving the district wide community safety priorities.
These priorities include:
- reducing burglary and vehicle crime,
- reducing drug and alcohol related crime,
- reducing youth crime,
- providing support to vulnerable victims and reducing fear of
crime.
The promotion of home security is essential in reducing both
burglary and fear of crime, and in providing support to vulnerable
victims. The Council has a responsibility through its
planning policy and development control function to encourage
developers of new homes to meet high security standards.
Crime prevention is also promoted through Secure Homes Initiative
grants, issued by the Housing & Regeneration team in Strategic
Housing Services.
The Housing Strategy also links with the Community Safety
Strategy and Young People’s Substance Misuse Plan in its aim of
ensuring that young people have access to appropriate accommodation
and support services. There are a number of projects working
with young people, including the newly developed floating support
service funded through Safer Communities Supported Housing
funding.
Social Inclusion
Bath & North East Somerset Council defines Social inclusion
as:
‘An approach to deploying the Council’s resources in a way that
maximises the potential benefits to people in B&NES, who
experience the greatest impacts of barriers to access and
opportunity’. (Strategy Committee, November 1999)
Social Inclusion is about tackling the causes and effects
of:
- Comparative poverty or exclusion through location such as rural
poverty or isolated estates in urban areas
- Poverty or exclusion through circumstances: lone parents, or
frail elderly people, or ill health, unemployment, issues affecting
children or young people
- Discrimination or exclusion through being perceived as part of
a group because of gender, or minority ethnic or cultural
background, or disability or age
As part of the development of what Social Inclusion means for
Bath & North East Somerset [i.e. looking at the barriers faced
by communities getting involved in consultation exercises, using
services or assessing that we are providing relevant services], we
have carried out two community consultations.
Residents from both the Snowhill area in Bath and the Queens
Road area in Keynsham were recruited and trained to carry out
extensive consultations with their respective communities.
Face to face interviews were carried out with residents using a
questionnaire covering a whole range of Council services and other
Agencies. The main headings were; Community Spirit; Health,
Environment, Safety, Crime and Nuisance, Drugs, Housing,
Opportunities, Access and Isolation and
Services/Facilities/Organisations. The results will be brought
together in a report at the end of July 2002 and feedback sessions
will be held with the public during July and September
2002.
Rather than develop these issues into a separate Social
Inclusion Strategy, Bath & North East Somerset Council intends
to incorporate them into the Community Strategy. The
methodology used in the community consultation will provide a
framework for developing the Community Strategy approach to
consulting ‘hard to reach’ groups.
Supporting People Shadow Strategy
The Supporting People programme in Bath & North East
Somerset will be a key delivery tool for the Housing Strategy
locally. A number of the objectives set out in the Bath &
North East Somerset Supporting People Shadow Strategy (attached as
Appendix D) are based on the broader picture of housing need in
Bath & North East Somerset and include:
- Working with RSL partners and managing agents to ensure the
provision of quality accommodation and support services
- Ensuring that the Supporting People strategy is driven by
existing social, housing and health agendas
- Offering improved choices for those seeking accommodation and
support
- Preventing homelessness
- Ensuring that planning processes around housing and related
services are inclusive and representative of the needs of all
sectors of the community
- Improving community safety
- Preventing crises
- Increasing the provision of services for groups who are “hard
to reach”
- Involving users and carers
- Openness and honesty in the commissioning process
In previous years the Housing Strategy has incorporated a number
of key themes which are shared with the aims and objectives of
Supporting People. These include:
- Joint commissioning activities
- The use of empty properties
- Promoting independence
- Matching provision to need
- Specific improvements for young people and for homeless
people
- Increasing choice
- The needs of B&OME People
- Delivering Best Value
- Consultation and user involvement
In August 2002 the Draft Supporting People Shadow Strategy went
out to service-providers and users for comment. The main
conclusions on need are summarised as:
- There is a relatively high overall level of supported and
sheltered housing in Bath & North East Somerset
- There are significant gaps in the provision of accommodation
for a number of service users groups
- There is a relatively low overall level of provision of
floating, outreach and re-settlement support for a number of
service user groups
A wide range of stakeholders was involved in a consultation
event in April 2002 which aimed to prioritise actions required over
the coming years to deliver the Housing Strategy (See Appendix H
for full list of invited groups). A key outcome of this
exercise was the identification of priorities for action, which
appear later in this document as SMART objectives. Several of
these targets also appear in the Supporting People Shadow
Strategy.
Health Improvement Programme
Bath & North East Somerset Primary Care Trust (B&NES
PCT) is leading the development of the Health Improvement and
Modernisation Programme (HImP) towards creating a collaborative
strategic lead for local NHS organisations alongside housing and
social services.
Partnership working to achieve this is key and is already well
developed with multi agency service planning groups in place.
To date this has tended to focus on health and social care services
and while links with housing services are in place these need to
strengthen. In the HiMP for 2002-05 a commitment is made to
building these stronger links through a public health development
multi agency group. This group, chaired by the Director for
Public Health, is already well in place and has the remit to bring
together the contributors to the “wider health agenda” such as
Housing, Environment, Leisure, Community Education, Public
Health. The intention is to develop a work programme that
maximises the shared capabilities and responsibilities of different
agencies towards a common health and well-being agenda that
influences strategy and service delivery.
Rural Housing Strategy
Enabling Officers within Bath & North East Somerset Council,
North Somerset Council and South Gloucestershire Council have been
working closely together to develop a joint, regional approach to
rural housing issues. The main objectives of this group work is the
formulation of a rural housing strategy and the development of a
bid for a rural enabler service for combined districts. This will
outline current issues with the provision of affordable housing in
our villages and smaller towns, identify current regional and
national strategies and priorities and outline the requirements of
each of the three unitary authorities for developing a service of
this nature.
Working together with a joint goal of delivering the National
targets for rural affordable housing, the Countryside Agency and
the Housing Corporation are helping to establish Rural Housing
Enabler (RHE) posts across the country. Providing a service
on a countywide, cross-authority basis, the Rural Housing Enabler
service has been developed to:
- Raise awareness of the need for affordable housing in rural
areas
- Enable provision of affordable housing
- Influence regional and local strategies that impact on
affordable housing
- Provide feedback to the Countryside Agency to inform National
policy formulation
- Work with local authorities to ensure provision of housing
advice, information and awareness raising for rural
residents.
The Homelessness Strategy
This is a new requirement under the Homelessness Act 2002 and
has to be written and in place by March 2003. In addition to
drafting a local Homelessness Strategy, Bath & North East
Somerset Council will be working with Bristol City Council, North
Somerset Council, and South Gloucestershire Council to formulate a
regional strategy that complements the local response to the
problems of homelessness and new legislative requirements. We
will consult with stakeholders, including service-users, to ensure
the Strategy represents local need and provision.
Single Homelessness Strategy
In March 2002, the Single Homelessness Partnership met to revise
the Rough Sleepers’ Strategy written in 2000, for submission (as
the Single Homelessness Strategy) to the Rough Sleepers Unit.
New targets were set, aiming to further reduce rough sleeping and
improve services for homeless people. This resulted in an
allocation of £175,000 from the Rough Sleepers Unit, to be used to
meet the targets identified in the Strategy. A copy of the
Single Homelessness Strategy is attached as Appendix B.
Temporary Accommodation Strategy
There were several factors that lead to the need for a Temporary
Accommodation Strategy:
- The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and the Homelessness Act
2002 came into force, widening Council responsibilities (See
Temporary Accommodation Strategy, attached as Appendix C, for
further details)
- Increased levels of vulnerability amongst homeless
applicants
- Increased numbers of people applying as homeless
- No increase in the numbers of properties available for
permanent rehousing
- Piloting of choice-based lettings
The Strategy highlights the need for a range of temporary
accommodation to meet increased need and legislative demands. The
action plan sets out how this can be achieved. The Strategy was
approved by the Housing & Public Protection Committee in
November 2001.
4. Partnership Working
Bath and North East Somerset can demonstrate a long-standing
commitment to partnership working. The Council’s role as
enabler is dependent on effective and meaningful communication
between itself, agencies delivering services and the people who
receive those services. The Authority is committed to further
developing its links with local service-providers and establishing
networks for user-feedback.
Some of the work done in partnership has been described above,
as it is integral to the Corporate Context of the Strategy.
There are other significant areas where the Council and partners
are working together, as detailed below.
In order to ensure this strategy is a document we can work with
and build on, full and meaningful input from all stakeholders has
been seen as crucial. To facilitate this, a Housing
Strategy Review Day was held in April 2002 with stakeholders
from Registered Social Landlords and voluntary and statutory
organisations working in housing, health and social services.
This enabled discussion of the issues facing providers, the
identification of real solutions and the agreement of joint working
to minimise or eradicate barriers. A paper on housing need,
attached as Appendix A and outlined below in the Needs Analysis
section, was used as a starting-point for discussion. The
priorities identified form the basis for future action and are
included as SMART targets further on in the Strategy.
The Bath & North East Somerset Joint Commissioning
Partnership was established in 1998 with the Housing
Corporation and its preferred development partners, Knightstone
Housing Association, Orbit Housing Association, Western Challenge
Housing Association, The Guinness Trust and Somer Community Housing
Trust. Working in partnership, the goal is to create good
quality affordable homes including rented homes for people on a low
income or in housing need, shared ownership/homebuy schemes and
supported housing.
Since the introduction of the Supporting People
programme, Bath and North East Somerset has worked with local
organisations and the DTLR to ensure that local people and
organisations gain the best possible advantage from the development
and implementation of the programme. A number of groups have
been established including:
Supporting People Decision Making Group – a panel made up
of Social & Housing Services, Health and Probation staff.
The key aim of this group is to take formal responsibility for the
development, implementation and future direction of the Supporting
People Strategy.
Supporting People Forum – a multi-agency group that works
to steer and shape the Supporting People Strategy.
Supporting People Cross-Authority Group – , Bath &
North East Somerset, Bristol City, South Gloucester, North
Somerset. This group works to develop an action plan to
ensure the programme is successfully implemented in their areas and
cross-authority.
Bath & North East Somerset is one of 27 authorities across
England and Wales to receive Central Government funding to operate
a pilot Choice-Based lettings scheme. In a non-landlord
Authority, effective partnership working is crucial to the success
of such a pilot scheme. The Lettings & Choice Partnership
Group is made up of Bath & North East Somerset Strategic
Housing Officers, representatives from the Joint Commissioning
Partnership and other RSL partners. The key purpose of the
group is to take formal responsibility for the development,
implementation and ongoing review of the pilot.
Since the extension of the Rough Sleepers’ Initiative (RSI) to
areas outside London in 1995, the Bath and later Bath & North
East Somerset, area has been in receipt of support from Central
Government to address the problem of rough sleeping. This was
overseen and co-ordinated by the Bath & North East Somerset RSI
Steering Group until March 2000, when the Single Homelessness
Partnership was created following a review of the Strategy to
Tackle Rough Sleeping. This is an umbrella group steered by
the Council and made up of local voluntary agencies, the health
service, Police and RSLs. As a result of collaboration and
partnership working, several new services have been created to
address the issues faced by people sleeping rough. The
Homeless Action Programme (HAP) and Drug & Alcohol Specific
Grant programmes have been successfully used to assist
rough-sleepers away from the streets and into sustainable
accommodation and lifestyles. The Single Homelessness Strategy,
reviewed by the Partnership in March 2002, is attached as Appendix
B. Work continues on priorities highlighted by the strategy,
including refocusing on prevention of homelessness, enabling
homeless people to establish a healthy and sustainable lifestyle
off the streets and reducing the number of people sleeping rough
and the length of time they are forced to do so.
The Public Health Development Strategy Group aims to promote and
protect the health and well-being of the population of Bath and
North East Somerset. It includes representatives from
B&NES Primary Care Trust (PCT), Bath & and North East
Somerset Economic Development, Social and Housing
Services and Environmental Health. It's objective is to
advise, lead and support the Council and the PCT in the
establishment of effective health development activity in all areas
of it's work, including service planning, delivery and
commissioning. Useful work has been done on mapping health
development activity across Bath and North East Somerset,
identifying gaps in activity and developing an action plan.
In Spring 2002, Bath and North East Somerset Council set up
a Steering Group to address the needs of care-leavers and other
young homeless people. This group is made up of Social
Services and Housing Officers and seeks to give strategic direction
to services and integrate operational policies, processes and
practice across Social and Housing Services. To ensure
that the views of the voluntary and statutory provide-sectors and
young people themselves are taken into account, a Reference Group
has been established. It is made up of a number of agencies working
with young people, including Off the Record, Connexions, SWAN
Advice Network, the Department of Work & Pensions, Youth
Offending Team, Health and Social and Housing Services. It is
hoped that this group will develop into a useful consultation arena
over the coming months, with a particular value as a means of
gaining young people’s views.
The Council works in partnership on Community Safety issues with
a range of other agencies, including the Police and Somer Community
Housing Trust, through the Partnership Against Racial Harassment
and the Partnership Against Domestic Violence. Both of these
partnerships aim to ensure that support is available for victims of
hate crime. The provision of accommodation and support for
victims of domestic violence remains an area of high, unmet
need.
The Bath & North East Somerset Drug Action Team commissions
a range of treatment services for people with substance misuse
problems, most of which are delivered by organisations involved in
the Single Homelessness Partnership. The DAT also has a
responsibility to tackle the problems which drug related crime and
nuisance causes in communities, and has used Communities Against
Drugs Funding to commission a specialist anti-social behaviour and
community development service to work in vulnerable communities
In May 2002, Bath and North East Somerset Council
participated in a regional conference – ‘Solving the Problems of
Homelessness in the Former Avon Area’. Over 85 people
attended from 35 organisations representing the voluntary sector,
private landlords, homeless people, health professionals,
Government and Local Authority officers and RSLs. Practical
responses were sought to address the issues of prevention of
homelessness, alternatives to Bed & Breakfast and moving
on. The conference identified a number of key problems and
produced a range of solutions to be explored. Several of
these centre on cross-boundary working and improved partnership
working between the voluntary, statutory and private sectors.
A full report on this exercise is attached as Appendix E.
In response to the increase in homelessness and lack of
temporary accommodation, Bath & North East Somerset Council
sought bids from organisations to provide non-B&B
accommodation. Somer Community Housing Trust came forward
with a proposal that formed the basis of a 5-year Service Level
Agreement between the Council and themselves. As a result, 16
new units of temporary accommodation have been created since August
2001. The refurbishment of the two hostels at Bloomfield Road
and Dartmouth Avenue has also helped to increase the quality of
existing temporary accommodation. This partnership is
on-going and Somer hope to explore other options, such as
Private-Sector Leasing and the development of new temporary social
housing. As part of the Council’s Housing & Regeneration
work, a number of groups have been established to promote better
and safer living conditions in a range of tenures and property
types, including Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO’s).
- Avon HMO Standards Group – a partnership between the Avon Fire
Brigade and the regional Local Authorities to produce common HMO
standards. In addition the Council is also working with the
Avon Fire Brigade on a joint Fire Safety Public Service Agreement
Bid
- Bath & North East Somerset Corporate HMO Group – a
multi-disciplinary corporate group that meets to address the
strategic and operational issues concerning the improvement of
substandard HMOs.
- Care & Repair in Bath & North East Somerset – a
partnership Home Improvement Agency that assists elderly and
disabled residents to remain in their own homes in comfort and
safety.
- Disabled Adaptations Liaison Group – a multi-disciplinary group
that looks at the operational issues surrounding the provision of
adaptations for elderly and disabled residents.
- Secure Homes Initiative – a partnership scheme with the Avon
Crime Reduction Unit. Grants and complete security packages
are offered to assist low-income elderly or otherwise vulnerable
residents to improve the security of their homes.
Grant-processing times are kept to a minimum and satisfaction
levels are consistently very high.
- WarmerLets Initiative – this partnership between Bath &
North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, South
Gloucester Council and the Centre for Sustainable Energy offers
grants to landlords of accredited properties to enable them to make
energy efficiency improvements to their homes thus benefiting the
residents and the environment.
- Radon Action Initiative – this partnership, comprising Bath
& North East Somerset, South Gloucester Council, Stroud
District Council, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural
Affairs, the Building Research Establishment and the National
Radiological Protection Board, aims to raise the awareness of
radon. Advice, assistance and support are offered to
residents where the radon action level has been exceeded.
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