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CHAPTER SIX: MONITORING AND SUPPORT ARRANGEMENTS
Councils request that further legislative moves towards 2012 target will only be put in place when all councils have capacity to meet the target.
During this consultation councils have clearly stated the issues which they feel will have to be addressed if they are to meet the 2012 target. The range of issues themselves are broadly similar but their impact locally is subject to a variety of variables relating to the type of council concerned, its size and a host of other local factors and circumstances. The key factors in regard to 2012 as far as most councils are concerned are:
- Increasing allocations of social lets to homeless people.
- Increase in the supply and access to affordable housing for rent across all sectors - council; RSL; private rented.
- The impact of prevention in reducing numbers of homelessness applications, including the role of other important services and agencies working with homeless people.
- Level and security of funding to maintain and extend housing support services.
- Maintaining sufficient supply of temporary and supported accommodation.
With reference to legislative requirement that the 2012 target will be monitored in terms of individual council's capacity to achieve it, councils are generally unclear what this means in practice. The number of social lets required to keep up with the numbers of people applying as homeless is increasing and likely to have a serious impact on councils abilities to address other housing need. The numbers of people requiring access to temporary accommodation is also increasing significantly as is the average length of time they will spend there prior to a permanent let. The sustainability of solutions is dependant on a great many non-housing factors relating to social and health related services, social networks and opportunities towards training and jobs. These require strong commitments from corporate and external partnerships with agencies and services whose priorities are different. In the short term councils and RSLs working towards meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard may be reducing the amount of stock available through upgrading or regeneration activity involving decanting of existing tenants or rehousing them if demolition is involved.
As this report has tried to demonstrate stock transfer councils and those in rural or island locations face particular challenges in that all the elements which have to be combined to move the target forward may not be there - direct control of stock and how it might be utilised; direct housing management policies/procedures; range/choice of vital or specialist services etc. In themselves these factors might not make the task impossible but they do add considerably to the difficulties, timescales and costs.
What are Councils looking for?
- Councils request that the individual circumstances of each council are taken into account when the Government look to further implement legislation. This view is particularly strong from those councils outwith the central belt.
- Acknowledgement that for the target to be achieved all the various elements must be in place to make it possible and that all parties that need to be involved acknowledge their role and contribution.
- Councils would like all homelessness related funding to be committed for longer than the current annual allocations. This would allow councils to plan tackling homelessness in the longer term. Ideally councils would like to see allocations over the 3 year period of the spending review.
Monitoring And Support Arrangements
Suggested Actions in recommended order of priority
34. The Scottish Government should clarify the basis and processes on which it will assess each council's ability to achieve its 2012 target, bearing in mind the multiplicity of factors which need to be considered and the variety of circumstances in which separate councils operate.
35. Elected members and senior council officers should ensure that funding for homelessness and related support services continues to be provided at an appropriate level necessary to achieve 2012.
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