Steve Peters – (Head of Public Protection & Housing)

Housing Renewal & Disabled

Facilities Grants (DFGs) within
Merthyr Tydfil
Created by J Pike
Housing & Community Safety Manager, MTCBC
 Presentation Brief:

• Awareness Raising : To provide an update on

the current structure of the services, following
the appointment of a new Housing &
Community Safety Manager; and to update
members on the current performance, issues,
risks and challenges facing the services of
HOUSING RENEWAL & HOUSING
GRANTS/DFGs
 Former Structure
• Prior to 16th March 2015
Housing Renewal
Manager Housing & Community
Safety Manager
(J Pike)
(B Owen)

Housing
Housing Grants/DFG Housing Strategy,
Renewal Team Team Community Safety
Homelessness,
(3 officers) Team
(2.5 officers) Allocations
 New/Current Structure

Housing &
Community
Safety Manager

Housing Renewal Housing Strategy,

Housing Community
Team Homelessness,
Grants/DFG Team Safety
Allocations
 Service 1

Housing Renewal
 Housing Renewal Team
Service Overview:
1. Declare, bid for funding and manage projects within our
declared renewal area – Bedlinog & Trelewis (2011-2017)
2. Co-ordinate and manage large scale strategic home energy
efficiency schemes – ECO, Arbed 2, Warm Homes, CESP etc...
3. Administer Houses 2 Homes (empty property loans)
4. Administer Home Improvement Loans (new for 2015)

All work is discretionary but hugely significant to the County

Borough in terms of attracting investment, improving homes,
improving health, job opportunities, local supply chains etc...
 Main Area of Work 1:
Bedlinog & Trelewis Renewal Area
• Declared May 2011, likely to expire May 2017
• Funding secured from Welsh Gov for each year:

Year Specific Other funding Nr homes

Capital Grant (Council, RSL, improved
(WG Money) private etc)
2011/12 £450,000 £1,430,000 76
2012/13 £466,000 £2,130,000 48
2013/14 £821,000 £9,000,000 72
2014/15 £812,000 £3,500,000 74
TOTAL £2,549,000 £16,060,000 270 homes
 Typical Projects
• Home Front Schemes
 Cosy Homes Grants
• Energy efficiency type grants for persons:
– Age 65yrs+
– With capital and savings of less than £16k
– Typically – boiler replacement, new windows and
doors, roof, remedial work to render etc...
– Max grant £5k
Environmental Works
 Main Area of Work 2:
Large scale, area based strategic home
energy efficiency schemes
• Currently come in only one form: Partially funded by Welsh
Gov, match funding required from big 6 energy providers
(through their Energy Co. Obligation – ECO)
• MTCBC has been hugely successful to date securing well
over £12M for schemes in the past few years
• Inc: current Keir Hardie Scheme (c160 homes), Arbed 2 –
Penydarren (c.150+ homes), Garden Village – c.140 homes
received mains gas, Shingrig (c.160 homes), Cherry Tree
Way & Maes Y Bedw – (c.60 homes) = c.670 homes to date
• And counting....
• Warm Homes (new name for same programme) Bid
deadline of 30th June 2015
Works in Progress
Completed Homes
 Main Area of Work 3:
Houses to Homes Loans (H2)
• Welsh Gov provided MTCBC with c.£375,000
of grant funding in 2011/12
• After 3 yrs we have issued 14 nr to the value
of £325,000 (£50k remaining)
• Repayment of loans – 2 or 3 yrs after approval
• Originally conceived as regional approach &
regional allocation of funding
• Significantly helps to return long term empty
homes back into use
 H2H – new money
• For 2014/15 and 2015/16 Welsh Gov have
provided us with LOAN funding, repayable in
13 to 15 yrs time - £350,000
• 50% of this new funding is to be used to
continue the H2H scheme
• Remaining 50% is to be used to fund the new
Home Improvement Loans
 Main Area of Work 4:
Home Improvement Loans (new)
• The Housing Renewal Team are now able to
provide 0% interest loans to owners of
properties to renovate or repair them
• Subject to a 15% fee
• Went live in May 2015, interest still unknown
• 17 enquiries received
• Quite complex to administer
• Allows monthly repayments
 Service 2

Housing Grants/Disabled Facilities Grants

 DFGs
• Statutory requirement – Council must provide them to
eligible clients
• Two parts to the service:
– Community Occupational Therapists assess a clients needs
and determine what adaptations are ‘necessary’ and
‘appropriate’ (not managed by JP)
– The Grants Team then determine whether the COT request
is ‘reasonable’ and ‘practicable’
• Mandatory limit - £36,000 per DFG
• Demand – we typically complete 100 DFGs per annum
• All are core funded from General Capital Fund
 DFGs
• Examples of works include:
– Stair lifts
– Access ramps
– Specialist hoists
– Level access showers/wet rooms
– Building extensions to dwellings to accommodate new facilities
 Budget Profile
Year Allocated GCF Actual Spend
2015/16 £850,000 Est. £850,000
2014/15 £1,000,000 £821,000
2013/14 £1,000,000 £1,137,000
2012/13 £650,000 £915,000

Why the variation?

1. Nov 2014, we made changes to level of specification on wet rooms, which

will save c.£150k per annum
2. Service is demand led – types of works vary year on year (large - v - small
jobs)
3. Some years ago we saw dramatic increases in demand, now fairly stable
 Performance
• Consistently a top quartile performer in Wales
• Our PSR/002 (Is a high profile National Strategic
Indicator or NSI and a Public Accountability
Measure or PAM)
• It measures the time to deliver a DFG from first
relevant contact a client makes with the Council
to the completion of the grant work
• We provide an Agency Service for clients – i.e. We
do all the legwork – this dramatically reduces
delivery time
 Performance Continued
350

300

250

200
MTCBC
150 Wales Avg

100

50

0
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Looking Ahead
 Challenges for Housing Renewal
• All staff are externally funded (Renewal Area funding)
• Renewal Area funding will cease as of 31st March 2017*
• We will continue to have to manage residual complaints
and issues arising from all 3 renewal areas (since 2001)
• H2H and HILs will continue to be recycled, however no
revenue grant provided – so the Council will have to
resource this (probably x1 FTE)
• The Energy Efficiency agenda is still going strong, so if
Merthyr Tydfil wants to realise the massive investment
opportunities moving forward, a staff resource is again
required (probably x 0.5 FTE)
• Phased and managed contraction of the department –
ensuring staff are informed of their options
 Challenges for DFGs
• Elderly population is growing year on year – demand will increase
over time
• Current ethos across a range of agendas – is to help people to
remain living independently at home for as long as possible, more
cost effective and dignified than formal care settings
• Independent Living Review 2014/15 – full extent not yet known, will
there be a single adaptations system?
• Increasing expectation by citizens and families
• Increasing awareness of ‘perceived’ rights of disabled people –
greater challenges of decisions (particularly COT assessments)
• Merthyr has a shortage of specialist, adapted and accessible
accommodation – so DFGs are the primary means of meeting local
needs
• We continue to fund DFGs in MVH Stock – ££££