Cre Code of Practice in Rented Housing 2003/4

BOROUGH OF POOLE

COMMUNITY SUPPORT OVERVIEW GROUP – MONDAY 23RD MARCH

REPORT OF HEAD OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

CRE CODE OF PRACTICE IN RENTED HOUSING 2003/4

Part of published forward plan: no

1.PURPOSE

(a)The Commission for Racial equality published a code of practice for rented housing in 1991. The intention of the code was to provide guidance on the operation of the Race relations act 1976 in relation to the field of rented housing. Application of the code is a best value performance indicator BV164.

(b)In the last best value performance plan the Council was unable to state that it complied with the good practice set out in the guidance. As a minimum the Council should publicly report findings on a six monthly basis.

DECISION REQUIRED

(a)Members are asked to note the report and that it is still not possible to state that the Council fully complies with the CRE code of practice in rented housing.

(b)Members are asked to note the action proposed by officers to comply with the guidance.

3.BACKGROUND

(a)The CRE code of practice in rented housing sets out good practice which housing organisations should follow to assure themselves that they comply with the guidance. It recommends that housing organisations should record the ethnic origin of households and monitor service delivery and impacts. Reports should be produced on a regular basis at a minimum of every six months. Where reports identify particular problems action plans should be agreed to rectify matters.

The guidance suggests that monitoring should cover :-

Access to housing – offers of accommodation and who gets housed into what type of property Service delivery – such as repairs ordering, rent control, and improvement grants, neighbour nuisance and racial harassment.

If monitoring is to be effective measures need to be established. For example the number of households on a waiting list by ethnic origin as a percentage of all households compared to the percentage of households who receive an offer of accommodation.

The following information refers to the first 9 months of 2003/2004

4. 2003/2004 MONITORING INFORMATION.

(a)The following table sets out housing demand by rehousing group and ethnic origin. It is notable that the transfer list does not include tenants ethnic origin. The current transfer application form does now ask for this information, but has only been recently changed to recorded this information.

ETHNICITY

/ W/LIST / TRANSFERS / HOMELESS
Numbers / % / Numbers / % / Numbers / %
White / 1752 / 62.7% / 210 / 24.1% / 131 / 65.5%
Mixed / 26 / 0.9% / 0 / 0.0% / 0 / 0.0%
Asian or
Asian British / 21 / 0.8% / 2 / .02% / 2 / 0.2%
Black or Black British / 10 / 0.4% / 1 / 0.1% / 3 / 1.5%
Chinese or Other ethnic Group / 5 / .02% / 0 / 0.0% / 1 / 0.5%
Not Given / 981 / 35.1% / 658 / 75.5% / 63 / 31.5%

4.1 The following table sets out the offers made by ethnic origin against the above overall demand.

Ethnicity of all Applicants

/ Compared with (all for 1/4/03 – 31/1/04)

ETHNICITY

Offers Made

/ Refusals / New Tenancies
Numbers / % / % / % / %
White / 2093 / 54.1% / 66.2% / 60.0% / 70.2%
Mixed / 26 / 0.9% / 0.2% / 0.0% / 0.3%
Asian or
Asian British / 25 / 0.6% / 1.4% / 0.9% / 1.6%
Black or Black British / 14 / 0.4% / 0.3% / 0.4% / 0.3%
Chinese or Other ethnic Group / 6 / 0.2% / 0.3% / 0.0% / 0.3%
Not Given / 1702 / 44.0% / 31.5% / 38.9% / 27.2%

4.2 The above variances are not significant. However, the ethnic minority groups have received fewer offers than the demand would suggest they should. It is suggested that consultation take place with ethnic minority groups to ensure that they have full understanding of the allocation process and have obtained the points that they are entitled to, however, these points will be removed with the introduction of Homechoice in February 2004.

4.3The table below contains information on the properties that were accepted by ethnic minority households and the areas in which they were allocated. Further investigation into reasons for rehousing, to ensure that in-direct discrimination is taking place.

Allocation area / Percentage of all allocations accepted, that were ethnic minority households
Canford Heath / 5%
Fernside / 2%
Haskells / 4%
Poole Town / 4%
Turlin Moor / 8%
Wallisdown / 7%

4.4It is not possible yet to provide information by ethnic origin, regarding the take up of services such as repairs or housing benefits.

Information has recently started to be collected from new tenants or new housing benefit claimants and recorded on the computer systems.

Reports will now be specified and included in our regular management reporting information

The ALMO inspection is expected to take place September/October this year, in which time HMS will be working towards a action plan to fulfil this.

4.5The Council provides rent in advance and deposit for households who are homeless and wish to secure privately rented accommodation. The ethnic origin for households who received rent in advance are as follows

ETHNICITY / NUMBER / PERCENTAGE OF ALL THOSE ELIGIBLE
British / 147 / 86%
Other
white backgrounds / 5 / 3%
Unknown / 16 / 10%
Bangladeshi / 1 / 0.5%
African / 1 / 0.5%

4.6 The following table shows applications and award of renewal grants in the first nine months of 2003/2004. The percentage movement could be due to the fact that more information is obtained at Formal application stage.

British / Not Given / Other white
Background / Percentage
Provisional applications / 56 / 271 / 1 / 0.3%
Formal applications / 38 / 43 / 6 / 7%

4.7 Given that the census showed at least 2.1% of the population of Poole was from an ethnic minority there may be a lower than expected take up of this service by that part of the community. When targeted promotion takes place it will be essential to ensure that publicity is in community languages and black and ethnic minority groups are contacted.

Background papers

CRE Code of guidanceS.Hendey tel 633747

Annual performance monitoring S.L Roegrs tel 633429

P.Gillette tel 633814