Agenda item

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to publish a policy if it provides discretionary DFGs and the existing Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy is out of date and due for review.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

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing presented the report.

South Kesteven District Council provided Disabled Facility Grants for the adaptation of properties of residents who require them be able to remain in their homes and complete everyday activities.

There were two main grant categories – mandatory and discretionary. In order to provide discretionary grants, the Council must have a policy covering this.

The polices for discussion were both for the discretionary grants, one had been created in conjunction with the other districts to try and create a standard offer across Lincolnshire, and the other is an updated South Kesteven District Council policy only.

The Council currently had a policy and either of the discussed policies will replace this once approved.

The funding came from a government awarded grants from the Better Care Fund and can only be used for the delivery of disabled adaptations. The grant award is provided annual and for the financial year 2023/24 the amount provided was £1,060,000.

The policies only covered grants awarded to the Private Housing Sector including Housing Associations and does not cover Council housing stock.

It was queried as to why the statistics used within the report were from 2009.

The Private Sector Housing Team Leader highlighted that it had been difficult to find more recent published information, but once the team had found more updated published information, the committee would be notified.

Clarification was sought around the differences between the two policies (SKDC standalone and Lincolnshire-wide).

The Private Sector Housing Team Leaderstated that the SKDC standalone policy was the current policy, and needed updating. There had been working groups in all seven of the county’s districts workingto develop a county-wide policy.

The main differences of the policies were outlined:

·       The Lincolnshire-wide policy did not specify individual grant types, whereas the SKDC policy did.

·       The cap for the Lincolnshire-wide policy was £15,000, and the cap for the SKDC policy was £10,000.

·       The third main difference was land chargeselements and products in terms of grants fir adaptations.

The Private Sector Housing Team Leader noted that there were no concerns with either policy.

One Member queried whether either of the policies had been means-tested.

It was confirmed that some aspects of the policy, including the mandatory aspects and some of the larger discretionary aspects, had been means-tested.  

It was questioned as to where the money attained from land charges would go.

The money attained from land charges would go into the discretionary funding pot to use on other grants.

Lincolnshire-wide policy may be the best option due to its handling of land charges. 

It was queried whether there was a difference in the costs of the land charges.

It was noted that there was not a difference in administrative costs or Officer time. The land charges were managed within the team.

The Private Sector Housing Team Leaderstated that Officers had no personal preference of either policy, it was noted that the Lincolnshire-wide policy was expected to be implemented in at least five of the county's seven districts.

It was queried if residents under the right-to-buy scheme would be eligible for the grants under the policy.

It was confirmed that any resident who had brought their house off of the Council, would fit into the criteria to be assessed.  

One Member queried whether there would be any legal costs for the policies.

The Private Sector Housing Team Leader clarified that legal costs were unknown, however, the cost would be less than other administrative costs due to legal services being conducted in-house. 

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED that the Committee:

1.    Notes and considers the policies put forward.

2.    Recommends the following option for cabinet to approve.

Option 2: Recommends that the Lincolnshire Discretionary Housing Financial Assistance Policy be adopted and published.