Minutes:
Councillor Paul Brown and Councillor Alison Bennett posed questions to the Officers in relation to Tree Preservation Orders and the Housing List.
Question from Councillor Paul Brown:
Noting the environmental importance of trees in relation to the acknowledged climate change and climate emergency and referring to the latest on-line register of Tree Preservation Orders published by the Council and dated 13th February 2017;
‘How many TPO applications and/or enquires were received in calendar years 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively; how many TPO Creation Orders were made in each of those years; and, in the event that the Council are not minded to create a TPO, how is the applicant informed of this decision?’
Response of Councillor Andrew MacNaughton
Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning
In 2017, 30 written requests for TPOs were received by the Council, of which 6 TPOs were confirmed. In 2018, 28 requests were received and 8 confirmed. And in 2019, 33 requests for TPOs were received and 4 confirmed. Notification of the outcome of the Council’s assessment of a TPO request is either by email or letter, depending on how their request was made.
The Member was content with the Cabinet Member’s response and asked that the register and TPO map be updated and asked for the figures for 2020.
The Cabinet Member advised the figures for 2020 would be provided to the Member.
Question from Councillor Alison Bennett:
In August 2019 tenants on the Clarion transfer register joined the Common Housing Register. I have a resident in my ward who is living in a one bedroom flat with her five year old child. She first applied for a larger property when her daughter was a baby in March 2015. The resident was one of the tenants who was transferred to the Common Housing Register last year. Following an unsuccessful bid for a suitable property at the start of 2020, the resident asked me to check what her date of joining the register was. Senior officers advised that she had lost her original date of joining of March 2015, and her new date was August 2019 - the date that the two registers were merged. Please can Cllr MacNaughton tell me how many people were transferred to the Common Housing Register from the Clarion transfer list in August 2019, and do they all now have a joining date of August 2019?
Response of Councillor Andrew MacNaughton
Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning
Before 1st August 2019, Clarion tenants could not join the Common Housing Register because Clarion operated their own register. So your tenant was only able to bid for Clarion properties. When they were able to join the Common Housing Register they joined at the first available date 1st August 2019. Currently there are 1741 households on the Common Housing Register and 232 of them are Clarion tenants who want a transfer. Not all of these would have been on Clarion’s register before 1st August 2019 as registers are organic and constantly change. Hurst is a very popular area, where there is a large demand for affordable housing. Now the tenants on the Common Housing Register have a much bigger pool of properties to choose from. There are currently 26 registered providers providing social housing in Mid Sussex.
The Member noted the Cabinet Member’s response and asked that in changing the date the tenant joined the register was unjust. Could the officers review the policy and revert back to the date to when the tenant joined Clarion’s register?
The Cabinet Member advised that was not possible as Clarion had their own register. At the time, and under Clarion rules there were no properties for the tenant to transfer to when she applied. It was not the fault of Mid Sussex District Council that Clarion tenants could not join our register with their existing date of joining. He highlighted that the date of joining is only one part of how a tenant is assessed, there are 5 bands, A to E. The date of joining is only a substantial risk if 2 people in same band with same position are eligible for the same property, the person on list longest would have priority for the property. To make adjustments to our register for Clarion tenants would disadvantage people who have been on our register for a long time, there are 26 Registered Social Landlords.