Newcastle Housing Advice Service

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council transferred its housing stock under Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) to Aspire Housing Limited in 2000 and as a statutory housing authority it continued to have a duty to provide a Homelessness, Housing Advice and Housing Register Services. These functions are currently delivered as the Newcastle Housing Advice (NHA) service under a contract with Midland Heart.

The existing NHA service contract commenced on 1stApril 2014 and is due to expire 31st March 2020.The current contractual NHA service has been delivered during a period where the housing policy landscape has changed significantly. The Welfare Reform changes, the cuts to Supporting People funding, the Housing and Planning Act and rent reductions for social housing tenants, are all policy decisions that are proving making it more challenging to support customers especially those who are the most vulnerable. This service has now been adapted to support the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) 2017 and has invested in significant changes to IT and resources to legally and practically support the enhanced legislative burdens.

The Council are conducting a tendering exercise to ensure transparency and best value for the future delivery of the following services. Under the existing contract NHA currently deliver:

> the Homelessness service, adapted to support HRA 2017, which includes the prevention of homelessness through advice and intervention, discharging the Council’s statutory homelessness duty and ensuring that customers are assisted to access appropriate housing;

> the Housing Advice service, which includes a comprehensive housing advice service across all tenures, joint working with key stakeholders and providers and signposting to other specialist services;

> the Housing Register service which includes the management of the Housing Register, nominations to Private Registered housing providers and advice on the Housing Register and the NHA Options scheme.

The NHA service offers free, independent and confidential advice and assistance to all residents in the Borough, and provides fair and equitable access regardless of tenure, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age or disability

Although the Council takes an 'enabling' role, it still retains the statutory responsibility for these services. The Council is responsible under Parts VI and VII of the Housing Act (1996) and as amended by the Homelessness Act (2002) and Homeless Reduction Act (2017) and is contracting out these services under the provisions of the Contracting Out and Deregulation Act (1994). The essence of this order allows the contracting out of executive functions while leaving the responsibility for making strategic decisions with the Local Housing Authority

The Council's aim is to ensure that present and future residents of the Borough have greater choice in being able to live in a home that is affordable, in good condition and adequately meets their needs. The Council is keen to ensure that it has excellent future proof services, where possible, which meet these needs.