Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council

Achievements of the Housing and Community Regeneration service April 2002 to October 2003

Purpose of Report

To report on the achievements of the Housing and Community Regeneration team from April 2002 to October 2003.

Achievements

To give a flavour to the work of the section I have set out below some highlights and achievements during the year. In presenting this paper I have divided (artificially) the work of the service into three sub sets and will report on each subset.

• Housing services
• Community safety and development
• Sustainable development
• Arts

Housing Services

Notable achievements

1. During the year we have undertaken a best value review of the housing service the results of which where presented to the Best Value Sub Committee on the 24^th February 2003.

• Development of a new three year Housing Strategy graded as average but close to above average.

• Launch of the Student Accommodation Accreditation Scheme to raise the standard of accommodation let to students of Shrewsbury College of Art and Technology and registration of 16 properties.

1. Launch of the Landlords Forum, a forum aimed at sharing good practise amongst private sector landlords and which now has a membership of landlords representing over 4000 properties.
2. Housing needs surveys completed in Minsterley and Bomere Heath and Bayston Hill. Funding secured for a Borough wide housing needs assessment
3. Publication of jointly produced Supplementary Planning Guidance on Affordable Housing.
4. Approval and progress in providing 178 additional units of social housing including completion and letting of 77 units during the period.
5. Development of a new housing allocations policy.
6. Expansion of the Rural Energy Watch home energy conservation programme into the urban areas of Shrewsbury and the completion of 226 home insulation and boiler improvements in private sector housing in the Borough funded through success in obtaining £30,000 in funding from Scottish Power and London Electric.
7. Entry into three year service level agreements with Shrewsbury Homes For All and Housing Young People in Shrewsbury to provide services to Homeless People. Development of a bond and rent in advance schemes for homeless people.
8. Appointment in Partnership with Severnside Housing of the First Neighbourhood Warden in Harlescott Grange.
9. Development in partnership with the other Council’s in Shropshire a robust Supporting People strategy and the process and policies required to implement over £7million of Supporting People services on the 6^th April 2003 without any additional financial cost to the Borough Council.
10. Successfully lobbied for a significant increase in the Government funding for Disabled Facilities Grants and were successful in obtaining the largest percentage increase in the West Midlands (70%)
11. The increase in funding has enabled the approval of 71 and completion of 63 Disabled Adaptations against a target of 60 (02/03), determining 92% of applications within 10 days of being duly made.
12. Developed a new Homelessness contract with Severnside Housing and secured an additional £80,000 (123%+) increase into homelessness services in 2003/04 pending a full review of service delivery.
13. Developed a new Private Sector Renewal Strategy and secured £600,000 capital funding over three years.
14. Development of a County Wide Homelessness strategy and secured funding to progress strategy

 

Community safety and development.

15. The last 18 months has been an exciting time in this service area. Although the service has been strained as a result of the loss of the senior community development officer, due to the effort of staff, our partners and the strong foundations built up over the last 18 months the service area continues to deliver and develop.

Notable achievements.

16. Highest on the list of noticeable achievements is being shortlisted for Beacon status for Community Cohesion for our work with young people. We are proud to be the only Council in the West Midlands and one of only two District Councils in the Country on the shortlist.
17. Nomination by the Government Office of the West Midlands as an example of good practise for the Community Safety Partnership.
18. Supporting young people in Meole Brace to develop their BMX track, which won the National Philip Lawrence Award for young people making a difference in their community.
19. Working as part of the Perkins Task Group to minimise the impact of the redundancies at Perkins and through this group helping to secure £170,000 government grant for outreach Citizens advice work and development of a North Shrewsbury Friendly Neighbour Scheme.
20. Launch in partnership with Connexions of the Single Regeneration Budget supported Raising Aspirations Partnership in North Shrewsbury which has seen the training of over 30 young people and adults in mentoring skills and ongoing mentoring of 52 young people at risk of exclusion from school, criminal behaviour or failing to reach their potential.
21. Extensive community consultation informing the designs for the recreational redevelopment of Shorncliffe drive and the children’s play area Quarry Park.
22. Community action days in Harlescott, Ditherington, Gains Park, and Castlefields engaging with difficult to reach communities and kick-starting community led action.
23. Continued support of over 80 Council and community led community initiatives, which received Council funding. Administration of the Community initiatives programme.
24. Operation Urban 2 in Meole Brace and Harlescott, which has led to around a 14% reduction in recorded crime in each area.
25. Operation CUBIT removing 80 untaxed and abandoned vehicles from the streets.
26. Drug awareness days for young people and 5 under 18s drug awareness dance events. Two drug awareness-training courses for parents and a drug awareness DJ skills course for young people.
27. In partnership with the Police and Severnside Housing serving 15 acceptable behaviour contracts on young people causing trouble in Meole Brace, Harlescott and Castlefields.
28. Launch through the Community Safety Partnership of Pubwatch, to improve safety within the nighttime economy.
29. Linking Shopwatch and Pubwatch to the town centre CCTV system.
30. Development of a Borough wide mediation service
31. Development of a outreach recreational scheme (Reccy Ranger) in association with the County Council and the voluntary sector)

Sustainable Development.

32. Notable Achievements.
33. Development of a sustainable travel plan for the Borough Council that is widely recognised as a road map to good practise.
34. Securing £31,000 Grant for the installation of photovoltaic cells and rainwater harvesting in the new Council Offices.
35. Working with the new Offices project team to ensure an environmentally sound building and developing the lessons learnt into a transferable good practise guide to sustainable construction.
36. Organisation and delivery of a highly successful Green Day and youth environment forum
37. Publication of the Green Guide
38. Development of a policy framework towards Shrewsbury becoming a centre of environmental excellence.
39. Extensive community consultation towards developing an allotment strategy and funding secured to develop a sustainable allotment.

Arts.

40. Positively marketed the public art competition in the west end bringing in over 100 entries from international and local artists.
41. Development of 7 arts based regeneration projects
42. Development towards a new arts festival in summer 2004 incorporate visual and performing arts.

 

Conclusions.

The last 18 months have been challenging. The service has continued to develop and in particular has created strong links with partners in the voluntary sector, the community and other agencies. The principle of partnership working is central to the service ethos, as it is only through combining energy; ideas and resources can the service attempt to meet huge public and member expectations.

 

A.T.Goldsmith

Housing and Community Regeneration Manager.