Issue - meetings

Purpose of report

The Council currently provided discretionary disabled facility grants (DFG) for adaptations to private residential dwellings within the district, in addition to its mandatory DFGs requirement. The Council was required to publish a policy if it provided discretionary DFGs and the existing Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy was out of date and due for review. The report provided the updated policy for consideration.

Decision

That Cabinet approves the Lincolnshire Discretionary Housing Financial Assistance Policy be adopted and published.

Alternative options considered and rejected

The other option considered was to not update the policy and continue within the existing Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy 2019.

Reasons for decision

The current policy was out of date and required a review. The proposed policy met the local requirements whilst ensuring consistent delivery across the county. The county-wide policy was considered and recommended to Cabinet by Rural and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 1 February 2024. A county-wide policy was favoured over having a standalone South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) policy.

SKDC provided DFGs for those who wanted to remain in their own homes but were less physically able. There were two main grant categories, mandatory and discretionary.

Funding for this was achieved through the Better Care Fund and could only be used for the delivery of disabled adaptions. This financial year the amount provided to SKDC was £1,060,000.

SKDC performed its own disabled adaptions to its own housing stock.

Whilst the policy would be adopted by Lincolnshire districts, there were some local discretionary differences for SKDC; SKDC did not currently means test for stair lifts and modular ramps, which was different to other neighbouring authorities. This was set to continue.