Private Rented Housing Scrutiny Review: Report to Cabinet

 Following the highly successful 'have your say' event that was held by RBC as part of the scrutiny review into private rented housing in Reading which I launched last year, a set of recommendations to Cabinet has recently been drafted and agreed by members of the Housing, Health and Community Care Panel (which I Chair) and the Environment Scrutiny Panel.

You can download a PDF copy of the report to Cabinet here. It will be presented on 14 April at 6.30pm.

Recommendations to Cabinet are as follows:-

Developing the Sector:

That Cabinet:

• Recognises through the Housing Strategy the particularly important role the private rented sector has for providing housing to a range of people in Reading;

Improving Standards

That Cabinet:

• Work with partners to re-establish a comprehensive landlord accreditation scheme to raise standards across the entire private rented sector in Reading:

Specifically, the scheme should aim to:

• Promote regular dialogue with landlords about how to develop the sector and address barriers to meetign the housing needs of local people;
• Provide a more comprehensive but accessible information 'hub' for lanldords, including clear points of contacts for access support across the Council or other organisations;
• Deliver improvements in energy performance across the sector, including encouraging landlords to better insulate properties, particularly older terraced housing;
• Continue to develop and promote services to to support tenants in the private rented sector, including promoting advice and support services to tenants and working with landlords to help them better support vulnerable people:

Environment and Community

That Cabinet:

• Endorse the creation of an officer group to co-ordinate environmental enforcement activties across various local authority functions;
• Ensure more readily understandable information is made available to local residents concerned about planning issues with conversions to Housing in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), and consider ways to promote this in particularly affected areas;
• Consider specifically the needs of HMOs and converted flats in reviewing the oucome of the prilot of more flexible waste collection in Katesgrove, while recognising many issues apply regardless of tenure;
• Consider whether HMOs and converted flats could be addressed specifically in the forthcoming review of planning policies in relation to parking;

Student Housing

That Cabinet:

• Work with the University of Reading (and other universities in the town) to develop a shared approach to the future of student housing in Reading to include:
• A strategic assessment of future student housing needs and a co-ordinated action plan to bring about improvements;
• Regular liaison meetings between the University of Reading, Thames Calley University, the Council, local residents and student representatives to issues and concerns;
• The commitment of additional resources by the University of Reading where appropriate towards the accreditation of student accomodation and environmental improvements in areas with large numbers of student properties, for example sponsoring 'clean up' activities or additional environmental liaison officers;
• Investigate if any solution if possible to the issue of 'persistent lettings boards in areas with high concentrations of student accomodations, either through planning or voluntary agreement with letting agents and landlords.

Reading through the recommendations you will see a number of issues I have highlighted on this blog and actively campaigned on in Redlands are included - particularly around environmental impacts associated with high-density of private rented housing.

I am fairly certain this is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken by councillors in Reading into the private rented sector.

I heard recently that the Government Office for the South East recently praised our Review and the work of officers and plan to use it as an example of best practice in other parts of the region, which is great news.

Obviously we hope very much that the Labour-run administration will endorse these recommendations and proactively take them forward. The Cabinet has around 6 weeks to respond.

Whatever the outcome of Cabinet's reflections on the issue, the extra resources announced in Febuary to improve private rented housing clearly shows that this Scrutiny Review has already had a major impact on Council policy.

As well as the effort of individual Panel members, a lot of officer time has gone into this Review which is much appreciated. I would like to thank Chris Norris and Sarah Tapliss at RBC in particular who supported members throughout.

I am also grateful to the many members of the public, students and landords who took part and gave us their comments.

Let's not forget the reason why we launched this Review in the first place: the highest proportion of 'non-Decent' housing in Reading, is in the private rented sector. In addition, this sector accounts for around 20% of all housing in Reading.

Read this post of mine from last Febuary if you want to know some of the issues which lie behind this shocking fact. The recession is throwing up other issues into private rented housing - notably risks to tenants in buy to let properties. You can read more about my recent campaigning to protect these residents here.

UPDATE:

RBC has just issued a press release about the Review.