Letter - Minister for Housing and Communities - Government Plan 22 Review - Response to Written Ques

HOUSING PDB AND LONG-TERM PLAN

QUESTION

1. Please can you provide the spend to date, including the breakdown of specific spend allocations in relation to this project?

ANSWER

Strategic Coordination -

The  Housing  Policy  Development  Board  recommended  the  introduction  of  a  strategic coordination function on housing within GoJ. This recommendation was incorporated as part of the Minister for Housing and Communities' Creating Better Homes Action Plan (CBHAP).  

A recurring bid of £250,000 pa across the current Government Plan period (total £1 million) was submitted to deliver strategic co-ordination.

Strategic co-ordination is now captured in Priority 1 - Stronger System Leadership - of the CBHAP, which has delivered the following to date:

• The Head of the new Strategic Housing and Regeneration team has been recruited and will support coordination across government and throughout the housing sector. One of the key remits will be to establish the Team by end of Q1 2022.

• New  Strategic  Housing  Partnership  in  place,  bringing  all  housing  sector  players together. First meeting on 29 September 2021.

• Cross-ministerial Housing Political Oversight Group has been established.

• Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) political working group has been set up to prove the case for new technologies in Jersey.

• Housing Ministerial input to the Regeneration Steering Group has been put in place, securing direct influence on government estates strategy.

The spend to date is under £50,000 and is currently limited to:

• Salary of the Interim Head of Strategic Housing and Regeneration, who started on 6 September 2021;

• Costs  from  the  initial  meeting  of  the  Strategic  Housing  Partnership  on  29 September;  

• The cost of research to support the development of the CBHAP.

Additional expenditure before the end of the current financial year is planned for a housing market review, research to support the MMC working group and for additional temporary staffing capacity.

Shelter Trust Grant

A bid for an extra £300,000 pa across the current Government Plan period (total £1.2m) was submitted  to  increase  the  grant  for  Shelter  Trust.  The  bid  was  consistent  with  the recommendations of the Homelessness Strategy and is being used by Shelter Trust to meet staff resource requirements and operational costs.

Of the £300,000 allocation for 2021, £225,000 has been paid across to Shelter Trust to date. The remaining quarterly instalment will be paid during Q4 of this year.

Vacant Homes

A recurring bid for £250,000 was submitted for each of the years 2022-2023 (total £500,000) for a Vacant homes project that will explore opportunities to bring vacant homes back into active use. This budget allocation is scheduled to be available from 2022.

TENANTS' RIGHTS

QUESTION

2. Please can you provide the spend to date, including the breakdown of specific spend allocations in relation to this project?

ANSWER

Rent Stabilisation

The introduction of rent stabilisation measures was recommended by the Housing Policy Development Board. This recommendation is now part of the CBHAP - Action 3D.  

A bid for £340,000 has been submitted across the GP period. The breakdown is as follows:

• One off funding bid of £70,000 in 2021 to support policy development and consultation, including potential legislation and the creation of a rent stabilisation function (e.g. rents officer or tribunal).

• £90,000  recurring  cost  per  year  is  held  in  reserve  from  2022  onwards  for  a  rent officer/tribunal function, and any associated expenses.

None of the allocation has been drawn down to date. Homelessness Services

Funding bids have been submitted across the Government Plan period, consistent with the Homelessness Strategy, to enable development of a structured pathway for individuals to access housing and co-ordinated support, including the adoption of approaches to tackling homelessness. The bid is in this area is broken down as follows:

• One off funding bid for £60,000 in 2021. This allocation has been used to take on the services of UK-based charity Homeless Link, who are providing specialist consultancy support to the Critical Support Team in Customer and Local Services. The contract value for the services of Homeless Link is £44,200, which has not yet been paid. The balance of the allocation (once the contract is paid) will be retained for a possible follow-on piece of work with Homeless Link in 2022.

• Funding bid to recruit staff to maintain a caseload of clients and provide personal support to individuals with multiple, high and complex needs and help them to sustain a tenancy. £60,000 would be spent on employing 1x FTE by Q3/Q4 2021 and £120,000 recurring per year would be spent on employing 2x FTE from 2022 onwards. With respect to the £60,000 allocation

(Q3/Q4 2021) £13,000 of this sum has been spent on staff costs; the balance will be spent

on homelessness and housing need (to include additional staffing costs and resources) in Q4 2021. The £120,000 allocation for 2 x FTE will be available in 2022 (which will be actively recruited for Q4 2021).

• A bid was also submitted to cover costs of delivering services to clients. A bid was made for £30,000 in Q3/Q4 2021 and a bid of £60,000 pa recurring from 2022 onwards. The £30,000 bid has not been drawn down to date, but the intention is to use it in Q4 2021 to deliver  homelessness  and  housing  need  services  (resource;  emergency  housing, deposits, room retention, cleaning costs). The recurring bid for £60,000 will be available from 2022.

Housing Advice Service

In June 2019, the former Minister for Children and Housing published the independent "Review of Access to Social Housing in Jersey". One of the recommendations of the review was that a "Housing Advice and Support Service" should be established, which was supported by the Minister. The creation of the service was also recommended by the Jersey Homelessness Strategy.  

An £80,000 bid from the 2020-2023 Government Plan was retained to establish the Housing Advice Service in 2021. The Housing Advice Service was not established in 2020, but £30,000 of this allocation was retained and carried over into 2021. A total budget of £140,000 was therefore available  establish and run the  service in 2021, which includes the recurring £110,000 pa over the Government Plan period.

The HAS was launched officially on 22 July 2021. A breakdown of the spend to date is as follows:

QUESTION

3. An on track' status has been provided for this project, however, no  target date for completion has been provided. What is the target date for this project?

ANSWER

With respect to implementation, the Tenants' Rights project has been incorporated within the overarching CBHAP. The various elements of the Tenants' Rights project are set out as constituent actions within the Five Priority areas of the CBHAP. The Summary of Actions and the Timetable for implementation of actions are set out in Page 9 of the Action Plan. Rent Stabilisation is Action 3D. Support for the housing needs of islanders are set out in Action 5B[1]. The different elements of the Tenants' Rights project therefore have different timetables for delivery which are set out in the CBHAP. The spend for the Tenants' Rights project is captured in Answer 2 (above).

QUESTION

4. We understand that work is ongoing to create appropriate support models for access to housing, can you provide further information in that regard?

ANSWER

The Government of Jersey has engaged the consultancy services of UK-based charity Homeless Link to review and develop a more robust service for tackling homelessness, bespoke to the needs of Jersey's population.

As part of this engagement, the Homeless Link charity will focus on service delivery and customer access, reviewing how housing and homelessness services are currently delivered across Jersey, customer access arrangements and the scope of the service. Homeless Link will support GoJ to develop new clear pathways for customers at increased risk of homelessness. They will also develop a pathway framework that details roles, responsibilities and accountabilities for cases and client groups that involve multi-agency working, to result in more joined-up services and improved customer outcomes.

The consultancy has engaged a range of key stakeholders across in the Island in early discussions to review current services and will continue to seek their views throughout the project to ensure that these are taken into consideration when designing service improvements.

ENDS