West Northamptonshire Council opposition councillors stage walk-out as private rented sector housing call-in fails at scrutiny committee

This followed a nearly two-hour Children, Education and Housing Scrutiny Committee meeting, held on Monday June 29, which tore into the council’s new guidelines for using private sector housing in homelessness cases, but ultimately led to no further action being agreed.

The Reform party has branded the opposition’s walkout as “political theatrics” and said the new policy enables the council to meet clear legal obligations.

Earlier this month, cabinet voted to approve a Private Rented Sector (PRS) Discharge Policy, which allows the authority to offer homeless individuals and families private rented accommodation instead of temporary or social housing.

A cross-party call-in was requested by Councillor Sally Keeble, leader of the Labour group, over concerns that there was no limit on the distance people could be sent from their homes, with no requirement for their consent, and a lack of detail in the important papers.

Many of the concerns raised around the policy were acknowledged during the meeting by the council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for housing, Councillor Charlie Hastie, who informed the committee that distinctive changes would be made to the document.

This included removing a clause which said that the use of private housing would be the “primary route”, but rather that it was a new tool to be used alongside other routes.

Cllr Hastie clarified the PRS policy is not primarily financially driven, but is about reducing homelessness demand and reliance on temporary accommodation.

Housing officers added that out-of-area private sector offers would not be made without the individual’s consent, despite the approved policy document stating that consent is not needed to offer private housing, as long as conditions are met.

Cllr Keeble made the point that some of the things that had been said during the meeting were entirely different to what was approved at cabinet.

“What we’re actually hearing now is a completely different policy,” she said, “If people are given a placement and they have to go for a review, if they then have to end up in court, they have to go by what’s on paper, what the words say.”

Councillor Ron Firman (Reform) supported the cabinet’s decision, appearing to read from a sheet of paper and Councillor Cameron Emery (Reform), who also appeared to read from his laptop, pledged his support.

The vote was split between the Reform councillors advocating for no further action and the opposition members voting against. The deciding vote to do nothing was carried by the committee chair, Reform UK Councillor Hayley Adkins.

Ahead of the last item on the agenda item, Conservative councillor Pinder Chauhan told the chair: “We’re leaving the meeting because I don’t think there’s any point in us discussing the programme going ahead because everything just goes through anyway.

“This is not a proper scrutiny committee, it’s just voted on, it’s pre-prepared speeches and this isn’t a proper debate.”

Councillor Scott Packer, who is vice-chair of the meeting, replied: “We’ve been here for two hours, we have debated this, we’ve listened to everything everyone has said.”

All five of the opposition members on the panel and in the audience left the One Angel Square meeting room.