A third of letting agents in York failing to comply with law

Nearly a third of letting and property agents are failing to comply with legislation despite being advised of new laws and action is being taken, City of York Council’s Executive Member for Housing was told at a Decision Session yesterday (17th October).

The report was accepted and the update given based on officers checking agents to ensure that they clearly display their fees in their offices and on their websites and that they deal fairly with any complaints by landlords or tenants, as part of a drive to further improve the private rented sector.

Last year, all agents in the city were found to be compliant following advice being shared by the council.

Lettings feesThe Decision Session was told that agents which let out homes on behalf of others were checked by officers by visiting their offices and checking their websites. Of the 47 which fall into this category:

  • 15 were found to be non- compliant (32 per cent)

Of those 15 non-compliant agents:

  • Seven were failing to display their fees in the office
  • Four were failing to display their fees on their website
  • Five were failing to display fees either in their office or on their website.

In line with government guidance, all 15 have been served a notice which allows 28 days to appeal or risk a maximum fine of up to £5,000. To date following the notice of intention stage, we have served final notices to two agents, one at the maximum level and other at a reduced level.

To find out more about the laws visit the council’s website https://www.york.gov.uk/info/20097/private_landlords_and_tenants or ring the Housing Standards and Adaptation team on 01904 552300 or email housing.standards@york.gov.uk

£200,000 for consultant’s report on a York Council housing stock transfer is “premature”

With the York Council showing little inclination or ability to bring several major change projects to a conclusion (Guildhall, York Central, Community Stadium, ring road improvements etc.), you would think that the last thing they would want to do is add another project to a growing list.Facts 4

It seems not, as the “Executive” is set on reopening the debate about whether to hive off its Council Housing activities. It is little more than a decade since tenants rejected the idea of having their tenancies transferred to either a Housing Association or quasi-independent “arm’s length company”.

It’s not as though the Council’s decision to outsource activities like econ
omic Facts 2development/tourism/markets has been an outstanding success. The bodies are largely self-serving and unaccountable (while still sucking in large amounts of public money).

It seems that Tories in the city want to rid themselves of Council housing responsibilities in the wake of the central government decision to reduce rent levels by 1% a year until 2019 (an attempt to reduce the cost of rent rebates). This could eat into the £3 million+ a year surplus that the York housing account currently makes.

Facts 1Confusion also surrounds the government’s plan to force Council’s to sell vacant “higher value” Council houses on the open market, to help to subsidise the sale of housing association properties to their tenants.

The effects of both these policies are far from clear. It is at least possible that social housing sales to sitting tenants will be very low even with the substantial discounts.

Council house management in York is far from perfect. We have often criticised the maintenance regime on communal areas and garage blocks. But that requires a change in management attitudes. It does not suggest a change in ownership and with it a loss of democratic accountability.Facts 3

 Spending £200,000 on employing consultants to engineer change is both profligate and premature.  It won’t produce a single extra affordable rent property in the City.

The effects of government policy will be clearer in a couple of years’ time.  The Council should concentrate its limited resources on other more pressing issues in the meantime.

Report extarct

Homeless households reduce as prevention measures continue

Rough sleeper number up on target in November

Rough-sleeper-London-006A report on homelessness shows that despite the pressures of the Boxing Day Floods, numbers of temporarily homeless people were lower than forecast.

This and other outcomes will be presented to the Executive Member for Housing and Safer Communities on 18 July at 3pm, along with proposed targets and priorities for 2016/17.

In 2015/16 the council exceeded its target and reduced the number in temporary accommodation to 53. Statutory homelessness also continues to reduce with 91 cases in York in 2015/16 (an 11.6 per cent decrease on the previous year) which is in contrast to a national increase of 5.8 per cent. Added to that, 630 homeless prevention cases were successfully handled that year which the report recognises as a vital part of the service and significantly contributes to the reduction in statutory homelessness.

Providing bed and breakfast for families is recognised as a measure of last resort and then for no more than six weeks. As of the end of March 2016, there was only one household accommodated in bed and breakfast and this was not a family.

In addition, the council’s highly-successful Older Persons Housing Specialist exceeded targets by supporting older residents to meet their changing housing needs, and the service has been extended for a further six months.

Despite ongoing work, the commitment of agencies, continued resources and new flexible methods of working, the number of rough sleepers in York rose to 18 in November 2015.

York’s ongoing interventions by the council and partners – including Arc Light and the Salvation Army – means that the city has the resources to accommodate longer-term homeless people meaning that no-one need sleep rough in York. The city’s No Second Night Out scheme also helps rough sleeper in the city to find a place in a hostel.

The advice available to residents include work around mental health and housing to help people at risk to secure and maintain tenancies, while infrastructure improvements are being proposed for the Ordnance Lane temporary accommodation site.

National changes bring new challenges into social housing which could lead to the reduction in available affordable housing for rent which is likely to place additional pressures on the service.

Council house account makes huge £4.3 million surplus in York

The Housing Revenue Account was budgeted to make a surplus of £2,624k in 2015/16.

A report to a meeting taking place today says the estimates were badly wrong

“There has been an overspend of £639k on repairs and maintenance, mainly due to the use of sub-contractors for high value repairs to resolve damp issues at a number of properties.

Mixed views from tenants on housing services in York

Mixed views from tenants on housing services in York

This was offset by a number of underspends in

  • general maintenance (£72k),
  • the painting programme (£150k)
  • decoration allowances (£49k) plus
  • £178k on utilities,
  • £436k from delays in capital schemes that are funded from revenue,
  • £248k lower than budgeted cost of capital,
  • £107k of additional interest income and
  • £257k from lower than budgeted levels of arrears and bad debts.

This resulted in an overall surplus of £4,344k and therefore an underspend of £1,720k”.

Tenants area likely to be unhappy.

There have been complaints about poor maintenance standards on some amenity and garage areas while requests for improved car parking provision on many estates are taking an excessive time to process.

The Council needs to tackle these issues quickly now that it has the funds available

Garage areas are neglected in many estates

Garage areas are neglected in many estates

York Council to discuss “Private Sector Housing Strategy”

rural-housingCity of York Council’s Private Sector Housing Strategy has been reviewed and refreshed following the publication of new evidence, the results of recent council and Government consultation, discussion at the council’s recent health and housing summit and feedback from a council Scrutiny Committee. The strategy is now being submitted for approval, alongside the outcome of the previous strategy 2008-13, to Executive on 30 June 2016, it takes account of:

The new evidence base for private sector stock from the Building Research Establishment (BRE) – including a Health Impact Assessment – has been added to the strategy to ensure it focuses on the issues causing the most impact on the health of the occupants and on maintaining and managing private sector rented housing to a high standard.

The recent government consultation on extending Houses in  Multiple Occupation (HMO) licensing, the council’s response to that together with its own proposed approach towards HMO licensing has also been updated in the report. Comments and views made by members of the Private Sector Strategy steering group and of the Scrutiny Committee which met on 9May 2016 to discuss this matter have been taken into consideration.

As private housing forms 86 per cent of the city’s total housing stock, the strategy has been developed with partners since 2003. Achievements during the life of the most recent strategy include: (more…)

York set to grow by 21% in size

Anyone currently planning to vote on the EU referendum on the basis that they may get more influence over their local community should Thier City or Our Citythink again. The report on the latest version of York’s Local Plan makes it clear that any population growth forecasts (including migration numbers) must be in line with government thinking. Councils cannot opt for lower figures – justified by more realistic economic development assumptions – without risking having a Whitehall written plan imposed on them.

The result is that the York Council has published a Local Plan which seeks to build an additional 842 homes in the City each year.

Most of these will go to the economic migrants who will be needed to fill the extra 15,000 new jobs (net 13,000) that the Council says will be created in the period up to 2032.  Most of these new jobs will be in professional & scientific sector (+2945) although high growth is also forecast for

  • retail (+2412),
  • administration (+1933),
  • tourism (+1847)
  • Construction (1353) &
  • Social care (+1212).

Declining industries are identified as

  • Manufacturing (-1231)
  • Public admin and defence (-587) &
  • Finance & Insurance (– 448)

The Council concludes that it needs to provide an additional 16,820 homes in the period between 1st April 2012 and 31st March 2032 (842pa). That is similar in total to the figures included in the 2014 draft when 14,816 were to be built in the period up to 2030. It is higher than the figure suggested a year ago (750).

Significantly it is also more than double the 400 a year average actually built since 2011.

So what has changed?

Then LibDem Euro MP Edward McMillan Scott with Westfield residents opposing the development of Acomb Moor in 2013. The site is scheduled to continue ion the Green Belt under plans published this week

Then LibDem Euro MP Edward McMillan Scott with Westfield residents opposing the development of Acomb Moor in 2013. The site is scheduled to continue in the Green Belt under plans published this week

The latest proposals represent an improvement on all the draft plans published since February 2011. The 2011 Plan – originated by the then Liberal Democrat controlled Council – did not involve any building on the Green Belt. In total, space for 12,075 dwellings was identified at that time.

An updated critique of Labours “Big City” approach was published 3 years ago. 

The new Plan substantially reduces (but does not eliminate) the need to build on land which has traditionally been regarded as Green Belt (and is currently protected as such). Over 407 hectares of green space will be lost under the new proposals. That compares to the Plan published in 2014 by Labour, which would have seen 911 hectares of Green Belt lost.

The new Plan (rightly) re-inserts an allowance for “windfall sites” with an assumption that around 150 of these small brownfield sites will become available each year. This is substantially less than have arisen over recent years and is therefore a very cautious estimate.

After taking into account existing outstanding planning permissions – and the number of homes built since the start of the plan period in 2012 – the Council believes it needed to identify sites for 8277 homes.

 In addition, it plans to earmark land to build a further 2540 homes between 2032 and 2037.

We will look in more detail later at the effect that this policy has had on individual sites.  However, there is some very mixed news with, on the one hand, sites like Acomb Moor freed from the menace of development, while a new threat has emerged which could lead to building on the football pitches and amenity land at Lowfields school.

Football gala at Lowfields playing fields. The latest plan threaten to build on the green spaces in the area.

Football gala at Lowfields playing fields. The latest Plan threatens to build on the football pitches in the area.

Of the 11 larger sites identified for development, seven currently fall in the Green Belt. These include:

  • The Civil Service Sports ground on Boroughbridge Road (292 dwellings),
  • Derwenthorpe Two (845),
  • Huntington Monks Cross (968) &
  • Haxby north (735).

In addition, two new communities are planned.

One is located off Wigginton Road between the City and Skelton (1348) while the other is at Whinthorpe, south of the University near Elvington (3339).  The Council papers make no mention of the impact such “villages” – and nearby large employment sites – might have on an already creaking infrastructure.

Some of the smaller housing developments and most of the employment sites are also located in the Green Belt.

Some will feel that the Council should have repudiated the Tory Governments high growth strategy a year of more ago. It may be too late to do so now.

For convenience the changes to land use are summarised below. Detailed maps can be found by clicking here

Green belt building plans

Green Belt building plans

Non strategic housing site

Non strategic housing site

Sites saved from development

Sites saved from development

Employment land allocations

Employment land allocations

York summit to inspire healthier housing

rural-housingLocal authority and NHS leaders are among those attending City of York Council’s health and housing summit.

The summit aims to identify new ways in which private homes can be made healthier to help people stay in them more safely and for longer.

The Northern Health and Housing Summit: Better Homes, Better Health will be held on 13 June at the University of York in partnership with the Building Research Establishment and Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP). It’s one of the few events which aims to tackle pressures on health, social care and in the biggest housing tenure the private sector and will share evidence and research findings which can be used to help shape policy and practice locally and nationally.
(more…)

York private sector housing standards plan open for consultation

York slum circa 1933

York slum circa 1933

A consultation is being shared by City of York Council with residents, partners in health, housing, and those involved in the private rented market, regarding a draft Private Sector Housing Strategy.

Using data from research carried out by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and commissioned by the council, the strategy aims to make homes in York safer and healthier places.

The strategy itself outlines plans to work closely with partners and residents to tackle poverty and disadvantage and to ensure that homes are healthier for their occupants.

These improvements to health and wellbeing aim to protect the vulnerable and dovetail with a vision for York to be a leading sustainable city with ongoing economic prosperity. Under the new One Planet York programme the city will strive for vibrancy and diversity of the local economy, the health and social wellbeing of residents and the quality of the built and natural environment.
(more…)

Round the clock care available at York council Extra Care Scheme

 Tenants at City of York Council’s Sheltered Housing with Extra Care Scheme, Glen Lodge, will be able to access round-the-clock care and support from this month.

PAY--Glen-Lodge-nursing-home-in-York-where-Pamela-Hudson-75-was-allegedly-bitten-by-a-rat

The new scheme will see Glen Lodge’s current extra care provision extended from 7am-11pm, to 24 hours, seven days a week.

With the number of people in York  aged 75 and older expected to rise by 50 per cent by 2030, and with the popularity and quality of its current provision at Glen Lodge and extra care services at Auden House, these new plans are part of a city-wide scheme to modernise accommodation for older people.

The programme seeks to address the needs of York’s ageing population by making the best use of existing sheltered housing, by offering people with higher care needs the services and accommodation they need now and in the future.

A planning application has also been submitted to build a further 25 flats and two bungalows on the Glen Lodge site, whose tenants can use the extra care services as their needs change. The application will be considered by the Area Planning Sub Committee on 4 February.

A number of staff from Grove House and Oakhaven – the two council residential care homes which are due to close this spring as part of plans to modernise care and support for older people as part of r the Older People’s Accommodation Programme – will help to deliver the extended care and support at Glen Lodge.

Residents are still awaiting the results of the independent inquiry into the alleged “rat biting” incident at Glen Lodge  (more…)

York Central residents survey.

click to complete

click to complete

Only two weeks left to give your views.

The York Council is now nearly halfway through its “consultation” on the future of the York Central site.

Sad to say, but the information provided to aid residents in making their choices is pretty hopeless. Most obvious omissions are any financial or value for money metrics.

Basically a survey which offers residents anything they want, but without explaining either costs or sources of funding, is bound to lack credibility. Local developers have already questioned he sanity of a project that depends on speculative office development to repay investment in infrastructure.

Similarly a casual suggestion that through traffic should be removed from Leeman Road is bound to prompt a question about the impact on the rest of the highway network?

Key background facts, like the number of unemployed in the City and the number on the housing waiting list, are not provided, yet respondents are asked to take a stab at the number of  new jobs and homes that they think should be provided on the site.

Doubly so, given the sensitivities that still linger on from the Lendal Bridge closure fiasco.

The Council really needs to debate how big they see the City becoming over the next few decades?

Answer that question first  and the contribution that the York Central site (which is ideally located) can make, will become more obvious.