The Committee considered the report on the review of the Cheshire East Common Allocations Policy.
It was a statutory requirement for every council, whether they have housing stock or not, to have an allocations policy in place which outlined how social housing located within their authority was allocated.
The Committee, at its meeting in July 2023, had approved consultation on changes to the policy. The report and appendices before the Committee set out the outcome of the public consultation and the changes to the Cheshire East Common Allocations Policy.
Reference was made to the British Legion response to the consultation, and it was asked if the Council intended to conduct and publish the results of any pieces of work to record the number of ex-service personnel who were currently homeless and what steps did the Council take to identify if an applicant was an ex-service person.
In response it was stated that the Council did not get a large number of homeless ex-service personnel, and that there would be a concern about publishing information as needed to be compliant with data protection rules, but the Council did use the data held to inform and commission accommodation especially for armed forces personnel. There had recently been an opportunity to apply for capital funding for accommodation specifically for armed forces personnel. The data held had identified a need and the service had spoken to registered providers to see if they would be happy to work with the Council. In relation to identifying an ex-service person, there was a field on the application form which enabled the applicant to state whether or not they were actually serving or whether or not they were ex-military. It was up to the applicant to decide whether or not they wanted to disclose this information.
RESOLVED (unanimously): That the Committee
1 note the outcome of the Public Consultation, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.
2 approve the revised Cheshire East Common Allocations Policy, as set out in Appendix 2 to the report.
3 delegate authority to make any future minor amendments or legislation changes to the Policy to the Director of Growth and Enterprise in consultation with the Chair of the Economy and Growth Committee.