5. Homelessness Benchmarking Report 2023-24 - Report
Renfrewshire Council · 14 January 2025
Back to Communities and Housing Policy Board — 14 January 2025 and its agenda
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___________________________________________________________________ To: Communities and Housing Policy Board On: 14 January 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Homelessness: Annual Benchmarking Report 2023/24 ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 The Policy Board has received regular reports over the past 18 months on the nature and scale of the current homelessness situation in Renfrewshire. 1.2 Each year the Council submits returns to the Scottish Government on a broad range of homelessness statistics. The Scottish Government published homelessness statistics for 2023/24 in September of this year, and through membership of Scotland’s Housing Network, the Council has been able to compare where it is performing well against other local authorities and identify areas for improvement. 1.3 This report looks at how the Council compares with other local authorities in dealing with the homelessness challenges. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations It is recommended that the Communities and Housing Policy Board: 2.1 Note how the Council is performing in responding to those who are statutorily homeless in comparison to other local authorities. __________________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1 Renfrewshire Council is a member of ‘Scotland’s Housing Network’ which collects data from participating landlords and produces benchmarking information. The benchmarking data from ‘Scotland’s Housing Network’ allows the Council to then compare performance with a peer group of 26 local authorities.
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3.2 Benchmarking is designed to assist with service improvement planning through comparison with other organisations and key benchmarking results on homelessness are summarised below. This report highlights where Renfrewshire Council performed well compared to other social landlords as well as any areas where there is scope for further improvement. 4. Homelessness Benchmarking report – 2023/24 4.1 Managing homeless cases Table 1 The number of households presenting as homeless has increased considerably since 2021/22, as shown in table 1, on the number of ‘live cases’ at year end.
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Table 2 In managing live cases Renfrewshire performs well in the average days to assess an application - 17 days compared to the national average of 19 days – (table 2). Table 3 Similarly, Renfrewshire remains one of the stronger performers in the time taken to close a case. On average Renfrewshire takes around 18 weeks to close a homeless case compared to a national average of almost 40 weeks.
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4.2 Lets to homeless applicants Table 4 The proportion of lets to homeless households in Renfrewshire has increased since 2021/22 in response to the increase in homelessness locally and nationally. Our target for 2024/25 is that 55% of all lets via the group system will go to the homeless group. Whilst the increase in lets over the past two years has helped to avoid a reliance on hotel accommodation (B&B) as a form of temporary accommodation, we are still below the average percentage of lets for the 26 local authorities who are members of SHN. The SHN measures the proportion of all lets including Regeneration voids, specialist lets, sheltered houses and so on, hence the nett figure for Renfrewshire is 41.2%. 4.3 Temporary Accommodation Table 5 As would be expected, the number of people staying in temporary accommodation has increased in line with the increase in homelessness. As with other local authorities Renfrewshire has this increase (1.33 per 1000) but still remains considerably below the SHN average (3 per 1000).
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Table 6 Despite the increase in people staying in temporary accommodation, Renfrewshire performs particularly well compared to other local authorities in relation to the length of time people stay in temporary accommodation – at an average stay of 114 days, we are significantly below the national average of 226 days. Table 7 Similarly, the level of satisfaction with the temporary accommodation provided remains high compared to other local authorities.
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5. Summary 5.1 Despite the increase in homelessness, the Benchmarking Report from SHN indicates that the Council and partners have performed well in several key areas: Days to assess homeless applications; Weeks to close case; and Length of time households spend in temporary accommodation. 5.2 It is clear that the homelessness pressures and demand for social rented housing are having an impact on outcomes/performance and are likely to continue to do so. A number of indicators suggest that although there is healthy and positive throughput in the local homelessness system, the context is becoming more challenging. 5.3 Homeless Services and partner services and agencies will continue to have a focus on maintaining performance on outcomes which compare well with other local authority areas, as well as ensuring that we continue to develop our understanding of issues such as repeat homelessness, tenancy sustainment for those who were homeless and so on. 5.4 Regular updates on homelessness in Renfrewshire will continue to be provided to future meetings of the Policy Board. _________________________________________________________________
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Implications of the Report 1. Financial – None 2. HR & Organisational Development – None. 3. Community/Council Planning Building strong, safe, and resilient communities – Improving and maintaining neighbourhoods and homes. Working together to improve outcomes – Increasing resident satisfaction with neighbourhoods and communities. 4. Legal – None. 5. Property/Assets – None. 6. Information Technology – None. 7. Equality & Human Rights – The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report because it is for noting only. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety – None. 9. Procurement – None. 10. Risks – None. 11. Privacy Impact – None. 12. Climate Risk – None. 13. Children’s Rights – None. 14. Cosla Policy Position – None. __________________________________________________________________ Background Papers None.
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The foregoing background paper will be retained within the Housing Service for inspection by the public for the prescribed period of four years from the date of the meeting. The contact officer within the service is Ray Walkinshaw, Housing Regeneration and Development Manager, telephone 0141-487 2189 or 07483 146814 and e-mail ray.walkinshaw@renfrewshire.gov.uk. ___________________________________________________________________ Author: Ray Walkinshaw ray.walkinshaw@renfrewshire.gov.uk