Decision details

This Report seeks approval to accept a grant of £192,560 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG). This funding has been granted by MCHLG to fund additional staff recruitment to the Private Housing Standards (PHS) team, primarily to focus on intelligence-led work in the East of the city where poor housing conditions are believed to be linked to recent migration in to the area.

This Report also seeks approval for the above funding to be rolled over from 2018/19 into 2019/20, due the award of funding being made late in Q4 of the 2018/19 financial year.

The Council accepts £192,560 grant funding from the Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government’s Controlling Migration Fund to be utilised in line with this report.

1.    Accepting the £192,560 of MHCLG funding would allow staff to be recruited and commence work that could not otherwise be carried out within the Council’s current budgets.

2.    Rolling the funding over into 2019/20 will allow spending to occur following the proper legal processes, and following consideration as to the best strategic application of the grant.

3.    The primary outcome of the acceptance of the funding will be the recruitment of staff as outlined in the bid included at Appendix A, adjusted as per Section 1.8 above, who will work to develop and then enact a plan of proactive inspections of private rented property in the East of the City, compile an ownership database, and offer enhanced tenancy support, more effective referral pathways, and better joint working practices with other agencies.

4.    Acceptance of the grant will bind the Council to the conditions outlined in Appendix B, and officers will therefore produce an Impact Summary document for MHCLG, as well as sharing learning acquired through work on the project.

5.    A full project plan for the work described in 6.3 will be produced, and submitted for approval through the appropriate route as part of the Executive Decision making process.

6.    As part of the project plan described above, full regard will be given to the implications of the Council collecting, holding and potentially sharing large amounts of personal data in the form of an ownership database, and ongoing work with the Information Management team will continue, including the production of a full Data Protection Impact Assessment to be updated throughout the life of the project.

1.    Without the additional funding, the PHS team could seek to operate on a ‘business as usual’ basis in the East of the city, fulfilling its statutory requirements with a reactive approach to reports of property disrepair and poor management.  This option relies on tenants reporting issues, which is recognized as less likely to occur with recently arrived migrants (see Section 2 of bid paper, attached as Appendix A), and does not address poor standards in a strategic way.  Nor does it allow for the enhanced work with partner organisations to tackle wider issues such as serious and organised crime and benefit fraud.

2.    The PHS team could seek additional funding elsewhere, either from within Council budgets or by bidding to other external sources.  Existing Council budgets are already strictly controlled, and bidding for alternative external funding would delay any work commencing, even if alternative external funding was available and any bid for it proved successful.