Housing Committee - 27/04/2015

At a MEETING of the HOUSING COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 27th April, 2015.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor John ALEXANDER, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 9th March, 2015 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I DECLARATION OF INTEREST

No declarations of interest were made.

II SHELTER LOCAL LANDLORD SUPPORT PROJECTS

There was submitted Agenda Note AN134-2015 reporting Shelter Scotland had secured grant funding from the Oak Foundation for work to promote higher standards in the private rented sector. Shelter was proposing two local outreach projects which would work with landlords: one in an urban area and one in a rural area and was keen to work with Dundee City Council as Dundee had a vibrant private rented sector and the Councils Private Sector Services Unit had well developed mechanisms in place to work with landlords.

The Private Renting Support Officer would work alongside the Council, Industry bodies and local housing bodies to offer support to landlords to improve practice and distil learning in a good practice toolkit. The projects would start from October, 2015 and run for two and a half years. The projects would be run by two staff (Private Renting Support Officers) recruited and employed by Shelter, they would be based within the Council to which they were attached, in Dundee the officer would work within the Councils Private Sector Services Unit. A local Steering Group would be established to oversee the project, setting the strategic goals and direction and to receive reports on progress.

The posts would be fully funded by Shelter with no funding requirement from Dundee City Council.

The project would offer a number of benefits to Dundee City Council including: additional capacity and resources, additional complementary resources to statutory interventions, problem solving and positive engagement with private sector landlords and a clear focus on a high growth sector.

The Committee approved Dundee City Councils participation in a Local Landlord Support Project from October, 2015.

III REGISTERED TENANT ORGANISATIONS - RTO REGISTRATION

There was submitted Agenda Note AN135-2015 reporting that a request for registration as a Registered Tenants Organisation had been received from Balmoral Tenants and Residents Association.

The Committee approved the application.

John ALEXANDER, Convener.