Scarborough Council accepts £1.4m grant to improve housing regulation on behalf of new authority

Funding of £1.4m to bolster, transform, and improve the responsibilities and regulation of housing enforcement activity across North Yorkshire is to be granted by the Government.

The funding is being accepted by Scarborough Council on behalf of the new North Yorkshire Council which will replace borough and district councils as part of the local government reorganisation, which takes effect from April 1.

The grant comes from the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities’ Pathfinder Funding Programme which has a national pot of £14m.

The cabinet voted unanimously in favour of the agreement at a meeting on Tuesday, January 17.

Scarborough, which has the county’s highest level of housing inspection activity, has been leading the development of a new housing enforcement policy and approach for the successor authority.

The issue of housing enforcement and regulation has recently received national attention following the death of a child in Rochdale from mould exposure.

Scarborough Council stated that around 70 per cent of all complaints it receives about issues with private rented housing are associated with cold, damp, and mould.

The authority’s head of housing, Andrew Rowe, told the cabinet: “To give you some context, for the Scarborough area we have done nearly three times the number of inspections of properties last year than all the other councils put together.”

He added: “The funding that we have bid for is to effectively double the level of enforcement activity across North Yorkshire in the next three years, so double the number of inspections that are done in total.”

Council leader, Cllr Steve Siddons, said: “I think it’s worrying that we are doing three times as many inspections as the district councils put together, but it is perhaps a reflection partly of the fact that we have a much higher level of deprivation here, than anything else.”

The funding will allow the new North Yorkshire Council to recruit up to seven additional staff members, provide additional training for all staff, and will improve joint working with the National Residential Landlords’ Association.