Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Nick Horne (Independent), Ian Knight (Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)), Tom Renhard (ACORN), Steven Teagle (Galliford Try) and Laura Welti (Bristol Disability Equality Forum).

It was noted that Laura Welti had raised some specific comments in relation to the reports and it was agreed that the appropriate report author would respond to her directly.

The Board noted the following:

• Bevis Watts of Triodos Bank had resigned from the Board due to an increase in work responsibilities and consideration needed to be given to appointing a replacement to represent the Finance Sector;
• It was hoped that a tenant representative would join the Bristol Homes Board;
• Alistair Allender was planning to step down as Chair of the Bristol Housing Partnership (BHP) after 5 years in the role and would confirm at a later date whether or not he would continue to represent the BHP on the Bristol Homes Board.

The minutes of the 28 November 2018 were agreed as a correct record with the following amendments:

• Clarification under “Any Other Business” that James Brokenshire MP had visited the Bristol Community Land Trust Project in Fishponds Road.

• Correct the spelling of David Ingerslev’s name.

Matters arising: Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy

The Board noted that:

• two meetings had taken place with approximately 30 representatives of agencies supporting rough sleepers to ensure coordination in achieving the shared target of zero people sleeping on the streets;
• the meetings were positive and it was hoped that this would continue as the group addressed more challenging issues.

There was no public forum.

Councillor Paul Smith gave a presentation on the plans to celebrate the 100 Year Celebration of The Addison Act “Homes for Heroes” legislation on behalf of Andrew Kelly, who was unable to attend.  He drew attention to the following points:

• The Addison Act 1919 was a significant piece of legislation which resulted in the first council housing estates being constructed;
• Bristol City Council was looking to mark this centenary and had approached Andrew Kelly (Bristol Festival of Ideas) due to his experience in organising this type of event;
• Local events had already been planned to mark the occasion in the early council estates of Hillfields, Knowle West and Sea Mills and the celebration looked to build on these with a whole city approach;
• A £80,000 bid for Heritage Lottery Funding had been successful and a further £80,000 had been identified from the Council’s Housing Revenue Account Budget along with additional funding from the Arts Council;
• The celebration aimed to achieve:
  • Raising Awareness e.g. how the housing estates shaped the Bristol boundary;
  • Giving a voice to people who live in these communities;
  • Challenging negative stereotypes of council tenants;
  • Reclaiming the title “heroes” by identifying people living in social housing who contributed to their local communities.
• The celebration would include a wide range of projects such as:
  • Hillfields project led by Local Learning including work in schools, library exhibition and a guided walking tour;
  • Knowle West project led by Knowle West Media Centre;
  • Sea mills project including a telephone box which would be used as a museum and a celebration of the tree that was planted to mark the building of the estate on 4 June 1919;
  • A new tree to be planted at the new housing estate being built in Ashton Vale;
  • Architecture Centre to use the celebration as part of Open Doors Day;
  • 50,000 copies of a graphical history of council housing was being produced and would be given out at various events and through libraries;
  • commissioning a book with short pieces by people who had grown up in council housing;
  • Producing a book with short walks around some of the estates;
  • A speculative project – looking at one of the original council houses being renovated as a 1920s house to be used as a temporary museum.

The following comments were raised;

• Nowhere else in the country was celebrating the event on the same scale as Bristol;
• The project could link with current veterans involved in the Community Self Build project;
• A virtual reality project may work better than the speculative project to renovate a 1920s house as this would have the benefit of reaching a wider range of people, including school children;
• Raising the voice of tenants would be a good legacy of the centenary celebrations;
• New developments would be included as part of the scheme to engage the community on what council housing should be like in the future;
• An event could tie in with the 50^th anniversary of St Mungos;
• Board members were invited to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Tim Southall gave an update on the housing trajectory and drew attention to the following:

·         The movements in achieving affordable housing targets were starting to get more moderate;

·         there had been a reduction by 1 of the 261completions during 2018-19 and a reduction by 17 of the 420 forecast for 2019-20;

·         there was an increase of 7 for the 820 planned for 2020-21, but the industry was a moveable feast and there was a need to track slippages;

·         it was a long time since Bristol City Council had undertaken such a large scale of delivering new homes.

The following comments were raised:

·         the Council was encouraging Housing Associations to take up grant funding and 300 affordable houses had already been allocated through this programme;

·         a slowdown in the housing market would offer more opportunities for affordable housing;

·         Brexit had had an impact on house building since 2016 and this would continue, although Bristol City Council had a Brexit plan which looked at the funding, economic and community impact, included housing;

·         Bristol City Council was looking at modular  housing as an alternative to traditional construction and different types of modular form e.g. panelised;

·         The levers the Council had to drive affordable housing was land, money (grants) and planning powers as well as a good partnership with other sectors.  Planning was the weakest link as developers could use permitted development rights/sustainable development to avoid providing affordable housing and these issues could only be resolved at the national level;

·         The updates to the Joint Spatial Local Plan and Joint Local Plan would help resolve some of the planning issues;

·         It would be useful for the next set of data to include a breakdown of both tenure and size of properties.

James Snelgrove, BCC, gave a presentation on the One City Plan which:

• had been launched on 11 January by the Mayor;
• aimed to bring some alignment to the many strategies across Bristol and also to look forward to 2050;
• reflected a one city vision to engage all key agencies in the city;
• was a live document which would be updated every year;
• had a vision, 18 priorities, 6 themes and 17 United Nations Sustainable Development goals;
• identified 3 key priorities for 2019 as:
  • Tackling Gang Violence and knife crime;
  • Developing an affordable childcare and nursery scheme in three local neighbourhoods;
  • Ending period poverty in Bristol.

The Board noted that:

·         There would be 8 Strategic Boards some of which, including the Bristol Homes Board, had already been established along with the Safer Bristol Partnership, Health and Wellbeing Board and City Learning Partnership, and others would be set up along the themes of Transport, Economy, Environment and Digital;

• The Boards would work together with the Chair as the primary point of contact and meetings would be timetabled to feed into the One City meetings;
• The Mayor would write to the Chair of Boards setting out how to engage with the One City Plan.

The following comments were raised:

• It was important that the Boards worked together to tackle issues that cut across more than one theme, such as homelessness and recognise that housing can have an impact on other areas such as health and wellbeing;
• Although the Council had taken the lead, this was a joint agency approach;
• The plan would evolve and improve as more people engaged with the process;
• The plan should clarify the term “accessible” and use language to reflect the social model of disability i.e. “disabled people” and not “people with disabilities”

The following actions were agreed:

• Councillor Smith would share the letter from the Mayor with all members of the Bristol Homes Board;
• Bristol Homes Board to hold an “away day” in the summer to look at its priorities and achievements since that last away day;
• Future agenda items to include:
  • how housing fits in with the priority to tackle gang violence and knife crime;
  • a discussion about the quality of housing to include self builds, accessible homes and density issues.

1. Bristol Disability Equality Forum Project

It was noted that Laura Welti had requested that the Board be advised of a new peer support project that could be of interest to Disabled tenants as its aim was support for Disabled people on a low income to increase inclusion and reduce social isolation and loneliness.

Members were requested to contact bristoldef@gmail.com to receive an electronic copy to circulate to tenants and/or display in communal areas.

2. Housing Festival Five Year Programme

In response to a question about the next significant milestone in the programme, members were informed that there would soon be an update about what sites would be available for the Zed Pods.