(time limit 30 minutes)
Motion 1
Councillor Roberts to MOVE and Councillor Leach to SECOND:
Action on Social Housing
This Council notes the delayed publication of the Government’s Green Paper ‘New deal for social housing’ which finally appeared in August 2018 and the promise that this would be”the most substantial report of its kind for a generation” by the then-housing secretary Sajid Javid.
While this Council welcomes the stated commitment to improve access to social housing and some of the individual proposals in the Green Paper e.g. dropping the forced sale of high-value homes and the limitation of the introduction of Right To Buy for Housing Association tenants to a trial in the Midlands, we also believe that this is a missed opportunity falling far short of the action needed to address the housing crisis in Oldham and across the country. One significant contribution would be to suspend the ‘Right to buy’ legislation. Nor does the Green Paper offer any proposals to mitigate the adverse impact of Universal Credit on landlords and tenants.
Oldham Council remains committed to working in partnership with housing providers and using all the resources available to meet the urgent and increasing housing need in the borough. Work is underway to produce a revised and updated Housing Strategy for Oldham to be completed by March 2019.
Council resolves to:
1. Continue to press the Government to provide additional resources to both replace the homes lost to social rent by ‘Right to buy’ and to provide badly needed new homes at a social rent both in our response to the Green Paper and through working with the GMCA and the LGA to bring forward proposals that meet local needs
2. develop Oldham’s Housing Strategy to provide a comprehensive housing offer for local people with an emphasis on increasing the numbers of homes available for social rent
3. explore new ways of providing homes in partnership with local providers and including by investigating the option of setting up a Housing Development Company
Motion 2
Councillor Chauhan to MOVE and Councillor M Bashforth to SECOND:
Creating a healthy and thriving Oldham
Oldham Council
notes:
• That good health is more than the lack of disease or
illness.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 13
million deaths annually are attributable to preventable
environmental causes. WHO estimates that 24% of the global disease
burden (healthy life years lost) and 23% of all deaths (premature
mortality) are attributable to environmental quality.
• For Oldham residents to thrive good mental, physical and
social wellbeing is essential.
• Health and wellbeing has an important relationship to
income, quality employment, decent housing, access to basic
services including education, physical activity, a good quality
built environment, the natural environment and cultural and social
fulfilment.
• That access to affordable, quality healthy food is essential
to good health.
• The number of environmental factors locally, such as the
sale of harmful products and unhealthy food, impacts directly on
health in our communities.
• Environmental factors within Oldham have resulted in a
higher than the national average number of deaths from heart
disease and smoking related illness, and vast health inequalities
and gaps in life expectancy between different parts of our
borough
• Of particular concern is the health of young people and
Oldham has unacceptably high levels of childhood obesity, young
people smoking and children with poor dental hygiene. Furthermore,
low quality environments impact upon the quality of mental
health
This Council believes:
1. That immediate action is required to eradicate environmental
factors contributing to poor health and wellbeing of
residents
2. The council and its partners has an important role to play to
protect health and wellbeing of residents
This council resolves:
1. To create a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) process as a means of evidence-based policy in order to
make improvements in health and wellbeing. Any policy, project or
programme that does not necessarily have health as its primary
objective will be subject to a robust Health Impact
Assessment
2. To use this process to develop Health Improvement Zones in areas where environmental factors have a significant detrimental impact on the health and well being of local communities, developing additional policies where needed e.g. Supplementary Planning Documents aimed at managing the availability of unhealthy take away food.
Motion 3
Councillor Jacques to MOVE and Councillor Ball to SECOND:
Tackling child hunger
This Council notes
This Council believes that every child has the right to a balanced and adequate diet and resolves to support efforts to provide free lunches for those who need them during school holidays including
Minutes:
Motion 1 – Action on Social Housing
Councillor Roberts MOVED and Councillor Leach SECONDED the following MOTION:
“This Council notes the delayed publication of the Government’s Green Paper ‘New deal for social housing’ which finally appeared in August 2018 and the promise that this would be ‘the most substantial report of its kind for a generation’ by the then-housing secretary Sajid Javid.
While this Council welcomes the stated commitment to improve access to social housing and some of the individual proposals in the Green Paper e.g. dropping the forced sale of high-value homes and the limitation of the introduction of Right to Buy for Housing Association tenants to a trial in the Midlands, we also believe that this is a missed opportunity falling far short of the action needed to address the housing crisis in Oldham and across the country. One significant contribution would be to suspend the ‘Right to buy’ legislation. Nor does the Green Paper offer any proposals to mitigate the adverse impact of Universal Credit on landlords and tenants.
Oldham Council remains committed to working in partnership with housing providers and using all the resources available to meet the urgent and increasing housing need in the borough. Work is underway to produce a revised and updated Housing Strategy for Oldham to be completed by March 2019.
Council resolves to:
1. Continue to press the Government to provide additional resources to both replace the homes lost to social rent by ‘Right to buy’ and to provide badly needed new homes at a social rent both in our response to the Green Paper and through working with the GMCA and the LGA to bring forward proposals that meet local needs
2. develop Oldham’s Housing Strategy to provide a comprehensive housing offer for local people with an emphasis on increasing the numbers of homes available for social rent
3. explore new ways of providing homes in partnership with local providers and including by investigating the option of setting up a Housing Development Company”
AMENDMENT
Councillor Sykes MOVED and Councillor Williamson SECONDED the following AMENDMENT:
“In paragraph three, add two new sentences at the end after March 2019 to read as follows:
‘Council will look to consult widely with partner agencies, elected members and with groups which are disadvantaged within the housing market (for example, people with disabilities of working age wishing to live independently) to ensure that their views inform this policy. However, Council also notes that the Head of Planning recently described the borough’s Affordable Housing Strategy as ‘not fit for purpose’, and recognises that this strategy needs urgent review to ensure that it contributes effectively to the borough’s affordable housing needs.’
In bullet point one of the resolution insert after ‘press’ in line 1 ‘this and future’ and change Government to Governments.
Insert a new bullet point two to read
‘Seek the support of the GMCA and the LGA in lobbying this and future Governments to grant local authorities the power to suspend the ‘Right to buy’ in their areas’.
Renumber original bullet point two to bullet point three. At the end of the renumbered bullet point three insert the words ‘and for groups who are disadvantaged within the housing market (for example, people with disabilities of working age wishing to live independently).’
Insert a new bullet point four to read: ‘Seek an urgent review of the borough’s Affordable Housing Strategy to ensure it contributes effectively to the borough’s affordable housing needs.’
Reformat original bullet point three to bullet point five, and insert additional words so it reads as follows:’
5. explore new ways of providing homes in partnership with local providers and including by investigating:
· The option of setting up a Housing Development Company
· Making use of reforms in the use of the Housing Revenue Account and prudential borrowing powers to finance house building by the new company
· Accessing finance via the LG Develop scheme recently established by the Local Government Association
· Identifying with partners (such as housing associations, the NHS, local developers and landowners), local land sites that have potential for housing development through the new company’”
The amended motion would read as follows:
“This Council notes the delayed publication of the Government’s Green Paper ‘New deal for social housing’ which finally appeared in August 2018 and the promise that this would be the ‘most substantial report of its kind for a generation’ by the then -housing secretary Sajid Javid.
While this Council welcomes the stated commitment to improve access to social housing and some of the individual proposals in the Green Paper e.g. dropping the forced sale of high-value homes and the limitation of the introduction of the Right To Buy for Housing Association tenants to a trial in the Midlands, we also believe that this is a missed opportunity falling far short of the action needed to address the housing crisis in Oldham and across the country. One significant contribution would be to suspend the ‘Right to buy’ legislation. Nor does the Green Paper offer any proposals to mitigate the adverse impact of Universal Credit on landlords and tenants.
Oldham Council remains committed to working in partnership with housing providers and using all the resources available to meet the urgent and increasing housing need in the borough. Work is underway to produce a revised and updated Housing Strategy for Oldham to be completed by March 2019. Council will look to consult widely with partner agencies, elected members and with groups who are disadvantaged within the housing market (for example, people with disabilities of working age working wishing to live independently) to ensure that their views inform this policy. However, Council also notes that the Head of Planning recently described the borough’s Affordable Housing Strategy as ‘not fit for purpose’, and recognises that this strategy needs urgent review to ensure that it contributes effectively to the borough’s affordable housing needs.
Council resolves to:
1. Continue to press this and future Governments to provide additional resources to both replace the homes lost to social rent by ‘Right to buy’ and to provide badly needed new homes at a social rent both in our response to the Green Paper and through working with the GMCA and LGA to bring forward proposals that meet local needs
2. Seek the support of the GMCA and the LGA in lobbying this and future Governments to grant local authorities the power to suspend the ‘Right to buy’ in their areas
3. develop Oldham’s Housing Strategy to provide a comprehensive housing offer for local people with an emphasis on increasing the numbers of homes available for social rent and for groups who are disadvantaged within the housing market (for example, people with disabilities of working age wishing to live independently)
4. Seek an urgent review of the borough’s Affordable Housing Strategy to ensure that it contributes effectively to the borough’s affordable housing needs
5. explore new ways of providing homes in partnership with local providers and including by investigating:
· The option of setting up a Housing Development Company
· Making use of reforms in the use of the Housing Revenue Account and prudential borrowing powers to finance house building by the new company
· Accessing finance via the LG Develop scheme recently established by the Local Government Association
· Identifying with partners (such as housing associations, the NHS, local developers and landowners), local land sites that have potential for housing development through the new company’”
Councillor Roberts exercised her right of reply.
Councillor Sykes exercised his right of reply.
A vote was then taken on the AMENDMENT.
On being put to the vote, 7 votes were cast in FAVOUR of the AMENDMENT and 46 votes were cast AGAINST with 2 ABSTENTIONS. The AMENDMENT was therefore LOST.
Councillor Mushtaq spoke in support of the original motion.
Councillor C. Gloster spoke in support of the original motion.
Councillor Dean spoke in support of the original motion.
Councillor Sykes spoke in support of the original motion.
Councillor Jabbar spoke in support of the original motion.
Councillor Roberts did not exercise her right of reply.
On being put to the vote, 52 votes were cast in FAVOUR of the ORIGINAL MOTION and 0 votes were cast AGAINST with 4 ABSTENTIONS. The ORIGINAL MOTION was therefore CARRIED.
RESOLVED that:
1. The Government continued to be pressed to provide additional resources to both replace the homes lost to social rent by ‘Right to Buy’ and to provide badly needed new homes at a social rent both in the Council’s response to the Green Paper and through working with the GMCA and the LGA to bring forward proposals that meet local needs.
2. Oldham’s Housing Strategy be developed to provide a comprehensive offer for local people with an emphasis on increasing the number of homes available for social rent.
3. New ways of providing homes in partnership with local providers and including the investigating the option of setting up a Housing Development Company be explored.
NOTE: Councillor H. Gloster was not in the Chamber during the vote on the AMENDMENT.
Motion 2 – Creating an healthy and thriving Oldham
The Mayor informed the meeting that the time limit for this item had expired and Councillor Chauhan as the Mover of the Motion and Councillor M. Bashforth as Seconder of the Motion requested the following motion be rolled over for discussion at the next Council meeting.
“Oldham Council notes:
· That good health is more than the lack of disease or illness.
· The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 13 million deaths annually are attributable to preventable environmental causes. WHO estimates that 24% of the global disease burden (healthy life years lost) and we% of all deaths (premature mortality) are attributable to environmental quality.
· For Oldham residents to thrive, good mental, physical and social wellbeing is essential.
· Health and wellbeing has an important relationship to income, quality employment, decent housing, access to basic services, including education, physical activity, a good quality built environment, the natural environment and cultural and social fulfilment.
· That access to affordable, quality healthy food is essential to good health.
· The number of environmental factors locally, such as the sale of harmful products and unhealthy food, impacts directly on health in our communities.
· Environmental factors within Oldham have resulted in a higher than the national average number of deaths from heart disease and smoking related illness, and vast health inequalities and gaps in life expectancy between different parts of our borough
· Of particular concern is the health of young people and Oldham had unacceptably high levels of childhood obesity, young people smoking and children with poor dental hygiene. Furthermore, low quality environments impact upon the quality of mental health
This Council believes:
1. That immediate action is required to eradicate environmental factors contributing to poor health and wellbeing of residents
2. The council and its partners has an important role to play to protect health and wellbeing of residents.
This Council resolves:
1. To create a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) process as a means of evidence-based policy in order to make improvements in health and wellbeing. Any policy, project or programme that does not necessarily have health as its primary objective will be subject to a robust Health Impact Assessment
2. To use this process to develop Health Improvement Zones in areas where environmental factors have a significant detrimental impact on the health and well being of local communities, developing additional policies where needed e.g. Supplementary Planning Documents aimed at managing the availability of unhealthy take away food.”
RESOLVED that the Motion be rolled over to the Council meeting to be held on 7th November 2018.
Motion 3 – Tackling child hunger
The Mayor informed the meeting that the time limit for this item had expired. It was Moved and Seconded that the following motion be withdrawn.
“The Council notes:
1. That the numbers of children living in poverty continues to rise. In Oldham in 2017, 40.66% of our children lived in poverty (the 7th highest across the UK) including 62.11% of Coldhurst Ward’s children, the highest rate in the UK. Government policy, including welfare reform and the impact of the full service Universal Credit, underpins this increase.
2. That Oldham Council, working with many local partners, has taken steps to tackle food poverty and to ensure that children receive award winning nutritious school meals. However, during school holidays many children, especially those entitled to Free School Meals, go hungry.
3. The pilot work down by Oldham Council, If Oldham, the Food Bank and local community and church groups this summer to provide free lunches for children.
This Council believes that every child has the right to a balanced and adequate diet and resolves to support efforts to provide free lunches for those who need them during school holidays including
1. To investigate and apply for additional sources of funding, including using District budgets where possible and appropriate
2. To research different models of tackling holiday hunger including ‘Feed and Read’ and ‘Feeding Britain’ and to put together a strategy that best meets Oldham’s needs using Council and community resources such as libraries, community and leisure centres and faith buildings.
3. To introduce an Oldham programme to alleviate child holiday hunger as soon as practically possible
RESOLVED that the Motion be withdrawn.