In the past year, ‘Your Waverley’ has received more calls for disabled facilities grants as Hospitals and Occupation Therapists (OTs) strive to get patients home from hospitals.

Officers told councillors they were receiving increasing referrals from private and hospital OTs trying to arrange work, including disabled adaptions to enable clients to get back home.

Grants had far exceeded previous figures. A large number of enquiries had been for ‘Safe & Warm’ grants – 49 compared to 31 in the last year. Much higher than in previous years.

By the end of March, there had been 115 new applications for Homes of Multiple Occupancy licenses (HMOs). These apply to properties with five or more occupiers and three or more storeys.

Increased complaints of living conditions were believed to have been due to increased media coverage (mainly covering dampness and mould). Complaints about illegal evictions and landlord harassment have also been significantly higher than in almost every other year. Other enquiries have been complaints about neighbours’ properties causing a nuisance. Which officers described as ” unusual.”

Waverley Council is responsible for arranging funerals for people dying in the borough where there is no one else will take responsibility. Where possible, it attempts to persuade other parties to fund – through Social Fund payments. Where this proves impossible, Waverley arranges funerals and reclaims as much as possible from the deceased’s estate.

Requests had remained high for the past three years, with 17 arranged in 22/23 (16 in 20/21 and 12 n 19/20 compared with only 5 in 19/19).