Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Brian Jones, Raj Metri, Arwel Roberts and David Williams.

Councillor Kelly Clewett declared a personal interest in business item 6 on the agenda, ‘Setting of Affordable Rent Levels’, as the owner of privately rented properties not those subject to social rent or intermediate rent.

To appoint a Vice-Chair for the Committee for the remainder of the 2023/24 municipal year.

Following Councillor Peter Scott’s resignation from the Committee on his appointment as Chair of County Council, the role of Committee Vice-Chair had become vacant.

Councillor Bobby Feeley nominated Councillor Pauline Edwards to fill the role of Vice-Chair of Partnerships Scrutiny Committee.  Councillor Edwards’ nomination was seconded by Councillor Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones.  No other nominations were received and therefore the Committee unanimously:

Resolved:  to appoint Councillor Pauline Edwards as its Vice-Chair for the remainder of the 2023/24 municipal year.

No matters of an urgent nature had been raised with the Chair or the Scrutiny Coordinator prior to the commencement of the meeting.

To receive the minutes of the Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 26 October 2023 (copy attached).

The minutes of the Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting held on Thursday, 26 October 2023 were submitted.  The Committee:

Resolved:  that the minutes of the meeting held on 26 October 2023 be received and approved as a true and correct record of the proceedings.

No matters were raised in relation to the contents of the minutes.

To consider a report from the Senior Strategy Officer- Stragic Planning and Housing, on the Setting of Affordable Rent Levels.

The Chair welcomed Officers and Lead Member Councillor Rhys Thomas to the meeting.

The Head of Planning, Public Protection and Countryside Services introduced a report on the setting of Affordable Housing Rents to the Committee. Officers stated that there was a mature and productive relationship with Housing Associations within the County. Housing Associations and the Council worked closely together to deliver the housing need within the County.

The Strategic Planning and Housing Manager guided members though the report.

Affordable Rent was split into two categories, social rent and intermediate rent. Social rent was the lowest most affordable kind of rent and most Council and Housing Association (Registered Social Landlords) properties have rent pitched at this level. All local housing authorities and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in Wales were required to comply with the Social Housing Rent and Service Charge Standard. The Standard was brought in as part of The Housing (Wales) Act 2014.

The report presented was concerned with intermediate rent.  The definition of Intermediate Rent was set by the Welsh Government (WG) as rent that is pitched at either Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate (determined by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to be the lowest third of open market rents), up to a maximum of 80% of market rent; the figure was inclusive of service charges. Intermediate Rent was market led rather than income led and therefore was affected by rent increases seen recently in the private rented sector.

Intermediate Rent was an option available to private developers alongside assisted home ownership, when considering planning obligations on new development sites. In Denbighshire there were 15 dwellings owned by 3 different private developers, which were rented out as intermediate properties.

Affordable Housing within the County was accessible via the Tai Teg register which was operated by Grŵp Cynefin. There were currently 960 applicants requesting Intermediate Rental Accommodation which had grown significantly. The increase in demand could be explained by the uncertainties in the job market, Brexit and Covid, property prices had also been increasing dramatically.

There had been issues regarding service charges being included within intermediate rent and a number of meetings had taken place with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and Welsh Government officers concerning this. In conclusion to these meetings, it was agreed that the Welsh Government guidance was slightly unclear and therefore they issued a letter (previously circulated as appendix (iv) to the report) to clarify any concerns stating that Intermediate Rent should include any service charges.

There was a further commitment from Welsh Government to review Intermediate Rent levels as part of their future policy however, there was no timescale for this at this time.

The Chair thanked the Strategic Planning and Housing Manager for the report and welcomed questions from Members.

Members referred to the service charges and questioned if this was a way of increasing rent by the developers. The Head of Affordable Homes (Clwyd Alyn) stated that some communal areas were maintained by the developer, there was an annual charge for each property which was passed onto the residents as a service charge.

Members asked if a tenant was having financial difficulties were the Housing Associations able to adjust the rent and service charges. The Clwyd Alyn Representative stated that they explored ways of helping tenants to pay their rent by issuing food and energy vouchers - they had a Residents Fund set aside for such circumstances - however, they could not stop the service charges. Consultations with residents had taken place to establish ways in which to reduce the service charge as much as possible for example cutting communal grass areas  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Scrutiny Co-Ordinator introduced the report and appendices (previously circulated) seeking Members’ review of the Committee’s work programme which provided and update on relevant issues.

The next Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting was scheduled for the 8 February 2024. There was one item listed for the next meeting:

·       North Denbighshire Community Hospital Project- Members were informed the item had been provisionally deferred to Committee’s March 2024 meeting.

The Scrutiny Chair’s and Vice-Chair’s meeting was scheduled for the 29 January and members were encouraged to complete the relevant form (previously circulated) if there were any items Members wanted to be considered at the meeting. No items had been added to the Committee’s work programme at the previous Scrutiny Chair’s and Vice-Chair’s meeting.

Appendix 3 was the Cabinet’s Forward Work Programme for Members reference. Appendix 4 provided the Committee with further information regarding recommendations from the previous meeting.

The Scrutiny Co-ordinator highlighted that following the resignation of Councillor Peter Scott, the Committee was required to nominate a replacement substitute representative on the Capital Scrutiny Group.

Nominations were sought from Members. Councillor Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones nominated herself. With no further nominations it was proposed and seconded that Councillor Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones be appointed the Committee’s substitute representative on the Capital Scrutiny Group.

The Committee:

Resolved:  –

(i)             to confirm its forward  programme as set out in Appendix 1, subject to the North Denbighshire Community Hospital Project item being provisionally rescheduled from the February 2024 meeting to the March 2024 meeting; and

(ii)           to appoint Councillor Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones to serve as the Committee’s substitute representative on the Capital Scrutiny Group (CSG), to deputise in the absence of the Committee’s appointed representative as and when required.

Bwthyn y Ddôl Children’s Assessment Centre:  Councillor Bobby Feeley, Denbighshire County Council’s Scrutiny Committees’ representative on this facility’s Project Board advised that the construction work was now at a well-advanced stage and that everything seemed to be on target.  She also stated that the Council’s Head of Children’s Services was keen to provide members with a report on the project in the near future.

Service Challenge – Performance, Digital and Assets Service:  the Vice-Chair, the Committee’s representative on this Service Challenge Group, informed members that the Service Challenge meeting for this Service was due to be held early in the new year.  She encouraged members who had any questions or concerns in relation to this Service to forward them to her as soon as possible, to enable her to raise them at the forthcoming meeting.

The Chair thanked members for their attendance at the meeting and closed the meeting.

Meeting concluded at 11.20am.