Issue - meetings

Report of the Assistant Director - Economic Growth and Housing

The Cabinet considered the report of the Assistant Director - Economic Growth and Housing indicating that furniture poverty was a widely recognised issue across the country and was known to impact the physical and mental health of tenants as well as playing a key role in tenancy sustainment. Furniture poverty affected people on lower incomes, who were living without the access or means to purchase essential items of furniture or floor and window coverings. By providing furnished tenancies to those in need of financial support and those who were most at risk of failing a tenancy, the scheme could help people to live more comfortably, alleviate financial pressures and reduce problematic debt or high-cost lending, enabling tenants to feel more settled and invested in their homes, leading to longer, more successful tenancies. With the current and ongoing cost of living pressures, this was of particular relevance to future prospective tenants of Council homes. The report detailed the proposal to introduce a furnished tenancy scheme to provide essential furniture items to be provided by a third-party supplier. The scheme was designed to provide an enhanced tenancy for tenants of the Council’s homes which would be optional and flexible to meet needs of individual tenants, subject to meeting eligibility and affordability assessment.

Cabinet Members commented on the significance of recognising furniture poverty.

Decisions Made:

That

(1)      the proposal to introduce a furnished tenancy scheme for furniture via a third-party supplier to be procured and appointed through the Northern Housing Consortium Framework Agreement for Furniture Services, be approved;

(2)      the scheme be evaluated after 12 months to establish take-up, financial viability, opportunity for expansion, delivery model and risk, and it be noted that this will be reported to the Council’s Housing Advisory Board; and

(3)      following the evaluation detailed in recommendation (2) above, any future decision to widen the proposed furnished tenancy scheme be delegated to the Assistant Director - Economic Growth and Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member - Housing and Highways, subject to any budget requirement being approved in accordance with the Council’s Financial Procedure Rules.

Reasons for the Decisions:

There were a range of benefits attributed to providing furnished tenancies recognised to both tenants and to the social housing landlord.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

Option 1 – Do nothing and make no provision for a furnished tenancy opportunity. Tenants moving into new council tenancies would face the same and existing pressures that they currently face.

Option 2 – Provide a furniture service directly. This would involve upfront capital cost to cover the purchase of furniture items, might reduce flexibility to tenants, would place liability on the Council to repair and maintain furniture items including coordinating delivery, installation, asset management, warranty claims, repairs, replacement and potential future storing and/or disposing of items.

Option 3 – Provide floor and window coverings and gift to tenants. Whilst this option would remove the liability of repairs and maintenance, it was also not considered financially viable at the present time given the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 127