Councillor Smith arrived at the start of this item.

The Head of Housing Services had submitted a report which notes the amendments made to the draft Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2018-21 following 6 weeks of public consultation and seeks the City Executive Board’s approval of the amended draft Strategy (and its associated appendices).

Councillor Rowley, Lead Member for Housing, reminded the Board that the pre-consultation version of the strategy had come to a previous meeting of the Board. The Strategy which had an emphasis on joint working with partners and service users now took account, among other things, of the Homelessness Reduction Act.  He had been pleased to accept some helpful suggestions of detail put forward by the Housing Panel.

The Strategy & Service Development Manager noted that the significant size of the Strategy was a result of having combined three previous Strategies into one.

The ‘City Conversation’ in November, while too late to contribute substantively to the Strategy, had been useful in informing Members’ and officers’ thinking about these matters. Cllr Rowley said that a steering group of partners had been formed after the City Conversation which was due to report back in April. Information about the City Conversation had been published on the Council’s website. He confirmed that it was intended that there should be a military veterans’ representative on the Steering Group.

Cllr Hollingsworth thought that the aspiration of getting to the point where people do not have to be homeless or sleep rough in the City if they do not want to should be made explicit. This aspiration had emerged from the City Conversation. It was agreed that the first bullet point of section 5 of the Strategy should be amended to reflect the views expressed in the City Conversation.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1.    Note the amendments made to the draft Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2018-21 in response to feedback from the public consultation; and

2.    Recommend to Council to adopt the amended draft Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2018-21 and its associated appendices.

3.    Delegate authority to the Head of Housing Services to make minor editorial changes as recommended by the Housing Panel of the Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 16 January and by the City Executive Board at its meeting on 23 January, and to update the Strategy and Action Plan as required in accordance with the monitoring and review process set out in Chapter 10 of the Strategy