Action on Housing and Health

What we've done so far

• established Care Call as a flexible modern system of giving security and independence to the older citizens of Cambridge - both those living independently and those in more sheltered accommodation
• developed a Joint Allocations Panel to improve the matching of applicants with specialised projects, particularly for 16 and 17 year olds
• improved sheltered schemes at Whitefriars and Stanton House, and rebuilt the scheme at Wulfstan Court in partnership with a housing association, as part of long-term modernisation of the sheltered housing stock
• reduced numbers of people sleeping rough, helped 110 homeless people into successful tenancies and prevented future homelessness through a vigorous new partnership with statutory and voluntary agencies
• freed up specialist accommodation through a programme of nearly 70 move-on units a year, helping people to live independently
• reduced the time it takes for vacant homes to be re-occupied from 48 days to 31 days
• reduced the period that broken windows on council housing are left boarded-up
• made the council-funded umbrella group for tenants' associations more accountable by requiring regular performance reporting
• successfully teamed up with a local housing association to secure money for shared ownership opportunities for workers in the health, education, and police services under the Government's Starter Homes Initiative
• sought (with little success) help from the Government to get access to additional capital resources to build new affordable housing
• reversed potentially dangerous cuts in the food safety team and earned high praise from the Food Standards Agency
• obtained 'Safer Communities' funding for the modernisation of the YMCA
• pioneered a formally constituted Housing Management Board, with elected tenant representatives, to advise the council on all matters relating to the management of the council's housing
• expanded the Housing Aid team to meet added responsibilities for care leavers, prisoners on release and people leaving the armed forces
• used discretionary powers to reduce the worst effects of government driven rent increases
• in partnership with housing associations and the housing corporation over three years achieved 175 units of affordable housing through the planning system

For the coming year we will continue these improvements, and in addition we will

• improve the provision for older people and shelter them, as far as possible, from the unfair rent increases imposed by the Government
• modernise the sheltered housing provision at Rawlyn Court over the next two years
• continue working with health services to improve the health of the community, including the creation of a Healthy Living Centre at Buchan Street
• target home repairs grants and loans to meet health improvement and warmer homes priorities
• establish a specialist clinic for the health needs of homeless people and specialist wardened accommodation for continuing heavy drinkers
• establish a 'safe house' where those who are rebuilding their lives away from drink or drug addiction can live in a self-supporting community by running their own workshop
• produce a realistic five year programme of work needed to meet the inherited backlog of repairs and provide tenants with a schedule of when replacements and improvements are likely to take place
• ensure that private landlords are informed about expected standards of maintenance and act against those put their tenants at risk
• increase private tenants' awareness of their rights especially amongst the student populations
• promote good practice on deposits for private leasing
• establish new schemes with access to equity loans to help residents on low incomes
• establish programmes of fence repairs and lighting improvements on housing estates
• work to create a purpose-built centre for supporting vulnerable young people at risk of homelessness
• start a vigorous programme of bringing back into occupation houses which have stood empty for years, using compulsory purchase or leasing powers
• achieve achieve more than 300 new units of low cost housing for shared ownership and for renting
• consult tenants and other stakeholders to agree a new, well understood scheme for allocating scarce council housing