To receive the above report.

Emma Congerton, Housing Service Manager, introduced the item and outlined which directorate the Housing Service was part of and its responsibilities. This included the rough sleeper pathway, funding disabled facilities grants, temporary accommodation and securing affordable homes on new developments.

Tracy Hendren, Head of Housing, Environmental Health & Trading Standards, explained the Housing Services was also responsible for administering licences and carrying out inspections of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), and for caravan site licensing. Members were told that the Housing Strategy was formally adopted at the Full Council meeting in June 2021. Its three key priorities were to deliver new homes, promote health and wellbeing, and to support vulnerable residents in obtaining and sustaining appropriate accommodation. This would be done by delivering a mixture of housing tenures and working with partners to create a ladder of housing opportunity. Health and wellbeing would be promoted through regeneration of area with social and economic deprivation through regeneration; supporting innovative designs that promoted wellbeing and better health through gardens and green open spaces; and by incentivising developers to bring forward schemes to support the climate change obligations to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Strategy also set out a target of creating a coalition of temporary accommodation landlords to provide sustainable, reliable, cost-effective temporary accommodation to support homeless households into long-term solutions, and the use of technology to improve access to services and clearly demonstrate outcomes.

Tracy Hendren explained that the Housing Act required certain types of leased properties to be licensed as HMOs and outlined the licensing requirements for such a property. There had been an increase in the number of enquiries relating to HMOs. However the Housing Strategy did not include specific measures around HMOs, although a commitment to working with private sector landlords to improve accommodation standards was contained within the Strategy and was deemed to be appropriate towards HMOs. The internal Service Plan stated its intent to review HMO licensing procedures and standards, and whether a Private Rented Sector Strategy was required to enable the authority to deliver against its private rented sector needs.

The Forum was told the Housing team had gone through a significant transient period over the last two years with roles being empty or undertaken by temporary members of staff. However the team was now fully staffed with permanent team members and the review was ongoing to enable the current procedures to be updated and the backlog of applications to be cleared.

Tracy Hendren outlined the operational practice as to how an HMO licence would be granted and what was required to be demonstrated. She stated that issues relating to car parking was not currently a consideration during the licensing application process. Tracy Hendren explained about the implementation of an Article 4 Direction, which would require property owners in a specified area to obtain permission to convert any dwelling into an HMO by removing their permitted development rights. She explained that Article 4 directions could not be used retrospectively and only applied to new HMOs coming into use. Because the Direction effectively took away the rights of the homeowner to use their property as they wished, this would only be considered if absolutely necessary.

Councillor Price stated that parking issues associated with HMOs was a problem in her ward and asked for confirmation this could not be taken into account when granting a licence. Tracy Hendren said this would go against the planning approach, as parking considerations were not required as part of new developments.

Resident Ed Wilson thanked officers for the presentation and asked how many HMOs were in Windsor and how many people lived in them; what would trigger an Article 4 consultation; and when was the Council’s register of HMOs last updated. It was agreed that an answer would be sent to Mr Wilson in writing outside of the meeting.

The Chairman noted that some HMOs were not part of residents’ parking schemes and this was likely to be a part of the tenancy agreement. Councillor Price said this would be appropriate in town centre locations where residents were within walking distance of amenities.