(Report of the Director of Planning, Housing and Environmental Health)
The report outlined a proposal to pilot rent guarantee and incentive payments for tenancies in the private rented sector. Under the proposal rent would be guaranteed through a financial commitment to pay any rent arrears during a tenancy to give financial reassurance to private landlords. Incentives would be through one off payments to private landlords.
Following consideration by the Communities and Housing Advisory Board, the Cabinet Member for Housing resolved that:
(1) a pilot offer for incentive payments and rent guarantee, using both Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) and the homelessness reduction initiatives budget, be approved to access tenancies in the private rented sector. This to continue until 31 March 2021 initially with scope to continue beyond this date, dependent on the number of tenancies secured and associated staff resources. Incentive payments will be one off payments to a landlord and rent guarantee will be in place for 6 - 12 months;
(2) in view of the pressure on the Temporary Accommodation budget and the difficulty in finding good quality private rented accommodation that can be used to discharge the duties of the Borough Council, the decision be taken by the Cabinet Member for Housing, in liaison with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Innovation and Property, and not held over to the next meeting of Cabinet in order to expedite this opportunity as quickly as possible; and
(3) the pilot offer be monitored and a progress report provided to the Communities and Housing Advisory Board at regular intervals for review and consideration of extending the pilot offer. Monitoring of the pilot will include tenancy sustainment success, administration options, homelessness prevention and landlord and tenant feedback.