Issue - meetings

The Cabinet considered a report on the outturn of expenditure of funding allocated through the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) for 2008/2009, an update on performance and the proposed use of grant funding for homelessness preventative schemes for 2009/2010 - 2010/2011.

The Strategic Housing Manager reported that notification had recently been received from the CLG that an additional £10,000 of homelessness grant funding had been allocated to each of the Districts in Worcestershire to assist Authorities to deal with the likely impact on housing option services of the current recession. In order to ensure that all Councils benefitted from the funding, the CLG had decided it would be appropriate to group smaller Authorities into sub regional partnerships to reflect current cross boundary working relationships. Therefore Bromsgrove Redditch and Wyre Forest would share £30,000 with a suggestion that this funding be pooled with the allocation received by the remaining Worcestershire Authorities. 

Members were concerned that officers made every effort to ensure that schemes relating to Bromsgrove benefitted fully from the additional funding and that any pooling arrangements delivered an equitable outcome for this Authority.

RESOLVED:

(a)       that the latest position on the homelessness preventative and support schemes funded through the CLG homelessness grant during 2008/2009 be noted;

(b)       that the Council’s performance in reducing by half the use of temporary accommodation in advance of the Government’s target date of 2010 be noted;

(c)        that the schemes recommended by the Homelessness Steering Group as set out in section 7 of the report be accepted and be funded from the Council’s CLG homelessness grant for 2009/2010;

(d)       that funding of £12,000 be forward allocated from the Council’s CLG homelessness grant for 2010/2011 to support the second year of the new Citizens’ Advice Bureau Mortgage Rescue Money Advisor Service as set out in section 8.1 of the report; and

(e)       that the Head of Planning and Environment Services in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Strategic Housing, be granted delegated authority to allocate any under spend, or make any further adjustments necessary, to ensure full utilisation of the grant allocation for 2009/2010 (including the additional funding referred to above) in support of existing or new schemes.