NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

21 May 2025

STATEMENT OF THE CHIR OF THE HOUSING & LEISURE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

The Housing & Leisure Overview & Scrutiny Committee scrutinises the Council’s role and remit as a social landlord, including policy review; service improvement; and governance arrangements to help ensure compliance with provision and regulation of social housing.  In addition, those housing services for which the Council is responsible, including housing strategy; homelessness and housing needs; the delivery of affordable housing as well as private sector housing renewal.   It also scrutinises cultural issues and the Council’s role as a provider of leisure services.

Since the Chair’s last statement to Council in February 2025, the Committee has met once on 10 March 2025 to consider the following items of business:

· Update on Consumer Regulation of Social Housing

· Homeless & Rough Sleeping Review & Introduction to Strategy 2025

· Complaints Update

· Lettable Standard Task Group Review Update Report

· Progress Update on Strategic Leisure Review

· Mobile Library Service Update & Route Prioritisation

The Committee received an update on progress made toward compliance with the requirements of the Social Housing (Regulation Act) and an oversight of the Council’s Housing Improvement Plan, in advance of it being considered by the Executive.  We considered the draft Plan and noted the associated key risks and challenges in relation to its delivery, and having queried the degree of confidence officers had to deliver 50% of the stock condition surveys by March 2026 and 100% by September 2026, were pleased to note the appoint of 13 new surveyors.  We also questioned the planned use of an external contractor to further bolster the speed of the work and were reassured to note that the 30-year HRA Business Plan allowed for a higher level of financial investment in the early years.

The findings from the Homeless & Rough Sleeping Review drew attention to the current demand and challenges, and the associated work planned for 2025-26.  The Committee noted there was insufficient temporary accommodation across the county and welcomed the planned 90 new units to be delivered over the next four years.  The Committee also received an introductory overview of the likely themes of the draft Homeless and Rough Sleeping Strategy, and we agreed to provide feedback on the finalised draft Strategy and its associated action plan at our next meeting, for the Executive’s consideration.

The complains update drew attention to the steady increase in complaints received each quarter since the introduction of the revised complaints’ policy in June 2024, and the potential reasons behind the increase.  We were pleased to note that overall housing complaints handling has improved since the revised policy was introduced, and that the council’s response and resolution of complaints was being done satisfactorily.  However, we queried:

· The increase in the number of complaints being upheld and welcomed the planned investigation into the content of those complaints.

· The number of complaints not being resolved within the necessary timescale and the steps being taken to address this.

Members of the Lettable Standard Task Group presented an update on their review work which included their draft recommendations and an outline of the remaining work to be undertaken.  The Committee will be considering the review’s draft final report at its next meeting which will include an understanding of the financial and other implications associated with those recommendations.  It is intended that the final report be presented to the Executive Member in June 2025 alongside a revised Lettable Standard that takes account of the findings from the review.

The Committee received a further update on the ongoing transition to a single leisure service and identified a number of specific issues with the leisure centres within their divisions. Having recognised the huge discrepancy in the quality of provision across the county the Committee questioned whether the volunteer led libraries model could be replicated for the provision of leisure services.  We were pleased to note the future model of delivery would be considered once the service had been fully consolidated, alongside consideration of the inconsistent parking arrangements at Leisure Centres.

The Committee provided feedback on the proposed criteria for the selection and review of mobile library stops, ahead of the introduction of a new mobile library vehicle planned for summer of 2025.  We were pleased to note the size of the new vehicle would allow it to visit more rural areas and the proposed change to the length of a site visit would enable more sites to be included on the routes.  We suggested that given the reduced size of the vehicle, consideration should be given to relocating the stops to a more central location, thereby improving access to council services.

Finally, the Committee suggested it would be worthwhile looking at intelligence gathered on current users to understand where they were travelling from to use the mobile service, in order to analyse the potential siting of new stops and the potential for re-locating existing stops within a village setting.  We also recommended that the service consult with Parish Councils.

The Committee’s next formal meeting is on 11 June 2025.

COUNCILLOR MALCOLM TAYLOR