Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Alison Hansford and Paul Walmsley.

To confirm the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Select Move meeting held on 26 February 2014, including notes from the customer drop-in session on 7 March 2014 (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Select Move meeting held on 26 February 2014 be held as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of any interests.

To consider the draft Final Report of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Select Move.

The Chair, Councillor Graham Dunn presented the draft final report of the Select Move Review. The report gave some background to the purpose of the review and outlined the methods of investigation that the Task Group had undertaken.

The Group had undertaken a review of the Select Move Choice Based Lettings scheme after concerns had been raised about its accessibility and user-friendliness of the system. There was also a perception that people from outside the borough and without a local connection were accessing properties in Chorley.

The findings have been mainly positive and Select Move has demonstrated that it is fit for purpose and an effective way for a number of partners over a sub-regional footprint, to work collaboratively to allocate social housing.

However, it was still felt that there was a need for some important improvements which could be made to the scheme, including ensuring necessary safeguards for those who are not equipped to access digital services and improving customer care.

The Group agreed for the following recommendations to be considered by the Executive Cabinet:

1.            That there continues to be regular monitoring by the Council of the level of net migration into Chorley, to ensure the new policy achieves the overall aims of prioritising Chorley properties for those with a connection to the Borough.

2.            That each Registered Provider review their processes for handing over properties at re-let stage, including both recording the time taken to prepare a property ready for let and also the level of assistance for new tenants. That all Registered Providers look to raise their offer to the same standard across all providers.

3.            That each Registered Provider reviews the provision for a decoration allowance for new tenants and review its levels, increasing it to ensure it where necessary to ensure it is sufficient.

4.            That the partnership consider the provision of surgeries or drop in sessions for customers to allow face to face support and demonstrations of how to perform certain tasks on the Select Move system.

5.            That any provision for surgeries or drop in sessions include the  rural areas and are promoted to ensure that older people are aware of them and able to attend,

6.            That the partnership considers undertaking a process of proactive marketing to those who are not bidding regularly and offer to provide assistance. This should include promotion of any drop in sessions, mailing out of the newsletter and assisting bidding on properties by proxy.

7.            That the Registered Providers within the partnership are encouraged to provide more details in their property adverts, including detail of any specific local connection provisions (for example in rural villages) and also the provision of photographs on the majority of adverts.

8.            That the partners continue to work collaboratively to develop a data base of adapted properties which will ensure that when an adapted property becomes available, it can be advertised with all the relevant information to ensure that it is appropriately allocated.

9.            That the Registered Providers within the partnership  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.SM.30