HOUSING COMMITTEE                                       Agenda Item 37 (b)

Brighton & Hove City Council

Subject:                      Public Questions

Date of Meeting:        16 November 2022

Report of:                   Executive Lead Officer for Strategy, Governance & Law

Contact Officer:        Name: Shaun Hughes Tel: 01273 293059

E-mail:                        shaun.hughes@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Wards Affected:        All

FOR GENERAL RELEASE

1.         SUMMARY AND POLICY CONTEXT:

1.1       To receive any questions submitted to Democratic Services.

2.         RECOMMENDATIONS:

2.2       That the Committee responds to the questions.

Public Questions:

1. Charles Harrison

Availability of Housing Market Reports:

The Housing Market Reports, produced by the Council’s housing strategy team, have proved very useful over previous years.

However, these are no longer available via the usual link on the Council’s web site, stating “Access denied - You are not authorized to access this page”.

There appears to be no current housing market data available since 31 Dec 2019.

With sky-rocketing costs, attributed to Brexit, Covid, Ukraine, etc., I feel that such data is becoming particularly important in strategic decision making.

Would you please explain why up-to-date Housing Market Reports are not available and when these will be reinstated in the Public Domain?

2. Joe Walker

· I currently live in temporary supported housing

· Brighton raised

· Work for the NHS as a social prescriber

· Looking for a room to rent in a shared house for last 3 months and sent 107 messages to request a viewing in that time, viewing 6. Landlords variously quoted 80-130 applications

· Some properties for short term rent as Air BnB in spring/summer

There is clearly a serious lack of available rooms for rental available to workers in the city. What has the administration done to address the issue and what research has been undertaken to assess the extent of the problem?

3. Jim Deans

So many reports coming out in the last few months making it crystal clear we to need build council homes and set them at Social or similar rents. Yet the current housing plan shows almost a nil by end 2023 due to estimated Right to Buy. Too much money spent on small projects when what is needed is a big brave approach.

Make no mistake Councillors if you cannot come up with a serious new housing estate size build then you are as guilty as the various governments that have led us to the Malnutrition, domestic abuse and violence, poverty and mental health crisis we see today.

Yet again I ask that we use one of the areas Like Patch Farm and set a target of 300 new homes in one build complete with services. Can you please get on with this.

Jim Deans

Sussex Homeless Support