Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Housing and Environment which sought approval to introduce a policy to provide assistance and a financial incentive to Council tenants occupying 3+ bedroom family homes in high demand areas, to move to smaller or more suitable housing, in order to increase the supply of large family housing.

By way of introduction the report advised that in order for the Council to manage its housing stock effectively it needed to provide additional properties for overcrowded and larger families; and explained that reducing the under occupation of Council houses would help to reduce overcrowding and homelessness in Aberdeen, and therefore the Council needed to develop initiatives which would increase the supply of available houses that were suitable for these household types.

The report explained that at present there were currently around 4,192 properties with 3 or more bedrooms within the Council stock and that it was likely that some of those tenants, were living in family houses which were now too large for their needs, however might be reluctant to move due to the cost implications or because they required help or assistance to do so.  In addition it was possible that some might also be struggling financially to heat and maintain these larger houses or have a medical issue which made climbing stairs and cleaning a house difficult.  As such these tenants might be encouraged to downsize to a more manageable home with the assistance of a suitable financial package. Therefore, it was proposed that a financial incentive based on an incremental scale of payments (£1,000 per bedroom surrendered rising to a maximum of £3,000) be implemented as part of the scheme.  An additional like for like payment would also be made if a qualifying tenant was prepared to move to an area of less demand permitting an earlier house move.  It was intimated that to enable the scheme to be successful the Council would need to make the proposal financially attractive and also to make an early offer of smaller more suitable property.

The report went on to advise that given the current pressure of demand for smaller properties from the statutory homeless, the Council would need to offer those downsizing some form of priority and the best way currently to achieve this was through the discretionary transfer mechanism.  The report detailed the implications for the Council and tenants of a change in tenancy through transfer or exchange.

Details of the arrangements for the introduction of the proposed initiative were outlined as was the main criteria for tenants to qualify for the scheme, namely:-

·        the applicant must be a tenant of Aberdeen City Council and live in a 3+ bedroom property designated as high demand and must wish to move to a smaller Aberdeen City Council tenancy;

·        the tenant must have no Aberdeen City Council housing debt;

·        the current property occupied by the tenant must be left in a good condition which was satisfactory to the Council;

·        the tenant must accept an offer of alternative accommodation from the Council (excluding sheltered housing);

·        the tenant must not have previously been awarded a downsizing grant;

·        there had to be sufficiently high demand for the qualifying tenants property; and

·        funding for the scheme was cash limited and would be allocated on a first come first served basis.

The report recommended:-

(a)       to grant approval for officers to implement a scheme of assistance to help under occupying Council tenants to downsize to a smaller more suitable accommodation;

(b)       to approve the criteria for Council tenants to access the grant as detailed above; 

(c)        to grant Committee priority to qualifying Council tenants of two offers of smaller accommodation;

(d)       to offer financial incentives to a maximum of £3,000 to qualifying Council tenants, and an additional like for like payment in accordance with appendix 1;

(e)       to allocate a budget of £76,000 to this initiative from the former Tenant Reward Scheme budget;  and

(f)         to grant delegated powers to Heads of Service to assess and approve as necessary, on a case by case basis, applications from council tenants occupying 3+ bedroom family homes in high demand areas as designated by the housing service, who wished to downsize to smaller accommodation.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to approve recommendations (a) to (e) as contained in the report;

(ii)               to grant delegated powers to Heads of Service to assess and approve as necessary, on a case by case basis, applications from council tenants occupying 3+ bedroom family homes, who wished to downsize to smaller accommodation; and

(iii)      to instruct officers to report back to the Committee, following three months of the implementation of scheme, providing an update on progress with the implementation and uptake of the scheme as well as the financial implications to that date.