Any Other Business
Minutes:
The Chairman explained that he had received a request from Councillor S. R. Colella to consider further information about homelessness levels in Bromsgrove as an urgent item following reports in the Bromsgrove Advertiser about homelessness in the district. The Deputy Chief Executive presented a briefing paper on the subject for Members’ consideration (attached Appendix 1), with the following points being highlighted for Members’ consideration:
· The homelessness figures quoted in the Bromsgrove Advertiser were based on information provided in a report by Shelter.
· The data was potentially misleading and based on a formula for calculating homelessness rather than an actual head count. The figure of 38 homeless people quoted in the report was based on adding the number of rough sleepers with the number in temporary accommodation and dividing by the total local population
· In Shelter’s report Bromsgrove had been ranked 20th out of 31 Councils in the West Midlands and fourth in Worcestershire.
· However the Council’s data indicated that there was not a problem with homelessness in Bromsgrove.
· When Officers had assessed local homelessness levels only 2 rough sleepers had been identified.
· The Council’s Communications Team would be working with the local press to ensure that any confusion in respect of this would be resolved in future updates to the public.
Members expressed concerns that the information provided in the Bromsgrove Advertiser’s article as the interpretation applied to the data released by Shelter could have caused reputational damage to the Council. There were also concerns that this might have led to the local MP, the Right Honourable Sajid Javid, being misinformed about homelessness levels. Officers were therefore asked to provide a copy of the briefing note for his consideration.