PAPER A

NOTES OF EVIDENCE

Meeting	Policy Commission for Care, Health and Housing
Ref	He.PC.27/09/06
Date	27 September 2006
Time	18.00hrs
Place	Committee Room 1, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight
Purpose of meeting	Formal public meeting
Attendance	Commission	Cllrs Erica Oulton (Chairman), Roger Mazillius, Win McRobert, Margaret Webster, Colin West and David Whittaker Co-opted Members: Mr Robert Jones and Mr David White
	Cabinet	Cllr Dawn Cousins
	Secretariat	Cllr David Pugh and Alan wells
	Other Councillors	Cllr Vanessa Churchman
	Officers	Ms Louise Biggs - Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Team Mr Peter Griffiths – Acting Head of Housing Ms Sarah Mitchell – Director of Adult and Community Services
	Stakeholders	Ms Jane Wilshaw, Joint Director of Nursing and Patient and Public Involvement – Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Trust Mr Ed Macalister-Smith, interim chief Executive, Isle of Wight NHS Primary Healthcare trust (PCT) Mr Martyn Pearl, Chief Executive, Medina Housing Mrs Margaret Wright, Ms Nancy Ellacott – Primary Care PPIF Chair
	Apologies	Cllr Geoff Lumley
Agenda Items
1. To agree the notes of evidence arising at the meeting held on 23 August 2006	Notes agreed
2. Declarations of Interest.	Cllr David Whittaker declared an interest as a member of the Council’s Development Control Committee Cllr Webster Declared an interest as a board member of Medina Housing
3. To receive an introduction and update from the new interim Chief Executive of the Isle of Wight NHS PCT	3.1 The key tasks for the new interim Chief Executive will be to finalise the new PCT, which comes into being on 1 October 2006. In addition, he will ensure that the structure of the organisation is good in order to provide a responsive service for the Island. 3.2 Joint working between the Trust and the Council was also mentioned as a means to help to strengthen services. 3.3 It was considered that the underlying funding of the trust is acceptable but some of the recurrent debt is of concern; a turn-around’ programme is now underway. 3.4 A new integrated post for of Chief Medical Officer and Director of Public Health has been proposed. It was also suggested that this could be joint post between the Isle of Wight Council and NHS Trust. This will encourage better working between General Practitioners (GPs) and hospital consultants. 3.5 It was confirmed that there will be a new Director for Human Resources on the Trust Board.
4. To receive evidence on enquiry Affordable Housing (H2/06)	4.1 The definition of ‘affordable housing’ was set out in some Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) published in September 2004. This SPG supplements policy H14 of the Council’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP). 4.2 According to the UDP (2001, page 7-11), “Locally affordable housing is defined as housing designed for those in the local area whose income generally denies them access to open market housing as a result of the relationship between income and market price” 4.3 There was a target for the delivery of 151 affordable homes in this financial year. 4.4 The ‘Island Plan’ will replace previous council policies, including those on affordable housing but will not come into being until 2007. 4.5 The number of homeless was being reduced year by year, with 150 this year. This was, in part, due to the provision of homelessness prevention officers. 4.6 A housing market analysis on the Island was currently being carried out. There was a need for these results to be used within other council plans, e.g. the economic strategy. 4.7 The number of people on the housing register has reduced over the past few years and now stands at around 3500. 4.8 The Isle of Wight has been able to attract more money from the Housing Corporation in recent years. 4.9 Housing Associations were focussing not just on building houses, but on creating communities. 4.10 There was a wide range of ways in which affordable housing can be delivered, including Section 106 agreements (a legal agreement between the Council and a developer to secure a planning obligation under the town and Country Planning Act 1990). 4.11 It was suggested that Section 106 agreements should be made at the start of the planning process to speed up the process. This is standard practice in other local authorities. 4.12 Housing Associations found it hard to pay for the extra costs associated with developments, as compared with private developers. For example paying for pavements outside a new development. The Housing Associations felt that there should be recognition of their special circumstance. 4.13 The building of affordable housing in some rural areas could be particularly challenging. Many local inhabitants supported the need for affordable housing in their local village, but objected to the size of some developments. 4.14 It was suggested that the questions posed to villagers to ascertain their views on affordable housing developments within their locality should be looked at in terms of how they’re phrased. This will help to better gauge opinion before any plans are drawn up for affordable homes. 4.15 A Public Relations (PR) campaign was required to make affordable housing more acceptable in local areas. The fact that it is housing that allows local people to stay in the area they were born should be highlighted. 4.16 ‘Choice-based lettings’ will be introduced across the island. This means that people can choose properties according to where they wish to live rather than having accept a property as it becomes available 4.17 It was highlighted that as most people who moved into new affordable housing developments are already on the island, there was no need for large improvements to be made to the existing infrastructure. 4.18 85% of housing association tenants were in receipt of some form of benefit and 90% earned less than £200 per week. 4.19 The Housing Associations were working with connexions to improve younger people’s opportunities and chances. 4.20 The number of units at and above which the developer becomes liable to provide affordable housing is: 25 for Newport, ten for rural areas and 15 for the rest of the Island. This subject to change under the Island Plan. 4.21 The building target number for affordable homes was 604 over the next three years. This will be challenging and requires some considerable work.
5. Other information	5.1 The commission suggested that the joint chief medical officer / public health could represent a conflict of interest. 5.2 Jane Wilshaw updated the Policy Commission on the recent developments in x-ray technology, which meant that the facilities in Ryde were no longer needed. St Mary’s hospital in Newport would be taking on all x-rays digitally resulting in a more efficient service. This will be up and running in December 2006 and more patients will be able to be seen in the x-ray department and should speed things up in orthopaedics department.
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