Cabinet considered the report titled John West House Redevelopment.

Councillor McWilliams, Cabinet Member for Digital Connectivity, Housing Opportunity, & Sport & Leisure introduced the report by saying that £796,000 of additional expenditure was being sought in order to complete the expansion of John West House. This scheme had been in the capital programme for the last year, and it would deliver an additional 16 bedrooms within the property. He then went on to describe the facilities that were on offer at the location and described the impacts of the pandemic that had been seen on the location. The additional bedrooms would be available for the residents that were on the rough sleeper’s pathway.

Councillor Hilton, Cabinet Member for Asset Management & Commercialisation, Finance, & Ascot, asked if the location provided adequate space to accommodate all who were sleeping rough within the borough. The Cabinet Member for Digital Connectivity, Housing Opportunity, & Sport & Leisure replied by saying that there were various stages of the pathway. Once residents entered at stage 3, they would live in semi-independent living quarters whilst receiving funding from officers with a view to eventually becoming fully independent.

Tracy Hendren, Head of Housing, Environmental Health & Trading Standards added to this by saying that John West House would be used at stage 1 for the assessment stage and also stage 2 where intense support would be provided for up to 2 years in John West House. John West House would be a learning house with independent self-contained accommodation, to allow residents to sustain a tenancy in the future. They would then move on to stage 3 independent accommodation with floating support for up to 6 months to ensure that they could sustain a tenancy moving forward.

The Cabinet Member for Digital Connectivity, Housing Opportunity, & Sport & Leisure said that 4 years ago there was no rough sleeper pathway and that none of the progress on show would have been possible without the hard work of officers and he wanted to place on record his thanks to Tracy Hendren and her team.

The Chair echoed these comments and said that the administration had left the borough in a better place than when they took over 4 years ago, despite the rising inflation levels seen in recent times.

This was proposed by Councillor McWilliams and seconded by Councillor Coppinger.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet noted the report and:

i)               Approved the additional expenditure of £0.796m to enable the John West House redevelopment to be completed in full.