Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use this page.
  1. Home

Director of Public Health's Report

Policy

Director of Public Health's Report

Overview report on the health of the population in B&NES, local health issues and recommendations for change

  • Published date: 02 August 2023
  • Last updated: 30 October 2024

Details

Directors of Public Health have a statutory requirement to write an independent annual report on the health of their population, to raise awareness and understanding of local health issues, highlight areas of specific concern and make recommendations for change. The content and structure of the report is decided locally.

The latest report:

  • covers the increasing challenges of household food insecurity and its damaging consequences
  • describes how not having enough to eat impacts on people’s lives
  • recognises the efforts of the many people and organisations in B&NES working to reduce and prevent food insecurity, and offering support to those affected
  • makes further recommendations for strengthening household food insecurity work

Documents

Last updated 30 October 2024

B&NES Customer Charter

Policy

B&NES Customer Charter

Information about our new Customer Charter.

  • Published date: 20 July 2023
  • Last updated: 16 October 2024

Details

We have developed our Customer Charter to help explain our expectations for how we propose to deliver the best customer experience, whilst also explaining how our customers can help us to achieve this.

Included within our Customer Charter is the 'Respect our colleagues' statement, which clarifies our stance on unreasonable customer behaviour, and is based on our new Violent, Threatening, Aggressive and Challenging Behaviour policy launched internally earlier this year.

What we will do

  • Make it easy for you to access our services, increasing what you can do online and ensure there are alternative routes for those who cannot use digital options
  • Make sure we take into account any accessibility needs
  • Treat you equitably and courteously, respect your privacy and the confidentiality of any information you give us
  • Be clear about what we can or cannot do, including the eligibility requirements for some services
  • Do as much as we can to resolve your query at first contact, and if we can't, we'll make sure you know what will happen next and when
  • Listen and learn from your feedback to improve what we do
  • Monitor our performance against our Customer Service standards

How you can help

We want to get you the right help as quickly as we can. You can help us to do this, by:

  • Accessing our services online, if you can
  • Telling us what your enquiry is about, as clearly and briefly as possible
  • Providing us with all the information we need to help you
  • Asking us to explain anything that you're not sure of

In order to help us deliver the best service that we can, please be considerate to our staff and other customers. We would appreciate it if you could let us know when you have received good service, or when things have gone wrong so we can work out how to improve.

Please let us know of any changes that will be relevant to the services we provide to you (a change of address, for example) and if you have an appointment with one of our services, please be punctual, or let us know if you're unable to attend.

Respect our colleagues

We know that things go wrong sometimes, and we respect your right to feed back to us. We have a duty of care to all our colleagues, and we won't accept any behaviour that is hurtful, hateful, or abusive towards our staff or customers.

Unreasonable behaviours

Aggressive, violent, threatening, challenging or abusive behaviour that could be physically or emotionally harmful, hateful, discriminative, negative or obstructive towards our employees and other service users.

Unreasonable behaviour that impacts on our ability to carry out work

This means behaviour that starts to impact excessively on the work or wellbeing of our colleagues, takes up an excessive amount of time, or when dealing with the matter disadvantages other customers or service users.

Unreasonable levels of contact that impact our ability to deliver services

This includes making excessive levels of contact that can be considered as harassment.

Hate crime or hate incidents

Hate crime is any unwanted behaviour which is intended to or creates the effect of violating a person's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person. It can be motivated by prejudice on the basis of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender reassignment or other grounds.

We will not accept these kinds of behaviour over any of our contact channels.

Our response

We will ask you to stop so we can explain why your behaviour is unacceptable. If you continue to behave in a challenging way, we will end the conversation and request that you leave or finish the call. We may also blocked you on our social media accounts, or we may decide not to answer your correspondence.

If repeat behaviour occurs, we have the right to exclude you from our premises or limit your contact with us until the issue is resolved, in order to protect our colleagues and other customers. If unwelcome behaviour continues, we will involve our security and legal teams, as well as the police, to manage the incident.

Giving feedback

If you would like to give us feedback on how your issue was handled, you can use our Have your say page.

Visit the Have your say page

Documents

Last updated 16 October 2024

Voicebox Residents Survey 2022

Corporate Report

Voicebox Residents Survey 2022

Voicebox is a resident survey aimed at obtaining residents’ views on a range of topics to help shape and improve local services. This report provides the results for Voicebox 31 (2022).

  • Published date: 12 July 2023
  • Last updated: 12 July 2023

Documents

Last updated 12 July 2023

HMO legislation, standards, guidance, required documents and checklists

Terms and conditions

HMO legislation, standards, guidance, required documents and checklists

Use this page to view the documents you need if you own and operate a HMO. And to view the conditions and standards that apply to all houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).

  • Published date: 12 June 2023
  • Last updated: 09 August 2024

Details

This page provides guidance documents about safety standards, housing conditions, and checklists to help you meet your legal duties. The documents include national legislation for HMOs and the conditions for operating HMOs in Bath and North East Somerset.

What are Houses in Multiple Occupation?

Houses in Multiple Occupation are defined in Section 254 of the Housing Act 2004 as follows:

  • A house occupied by 3 or more persons forming more than one household who share a basic amenity such as a bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities. This is called ‘the standard test’.
  • A flat occupied by persons forming more than one household who share a basic amenity (all of which are within the flat) e.g. a bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities. This is called ‘the self-contained flat test’
  • A building that has been converted into flats but not all of the flats are fully self-contained flats. There may not necessarily be sharing of amenities. This is called ‘the converted building test’

Mandatory Licensable HMO

The property is a Mandatory Licensable HMO if both of the following apply:

  • At least 5 people occupy the property who form more than 1 household, and;
  • they share a toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other people. 

Read the legislation on houses in multiple occupation.

Buildings that are not HMOs

A summary from Schedule 14 of the Housing Act 2004

Some buildings are not HMOs for the purpose of the Housing Act 2004, even if they meet the requirements of the HMO definition.

These buildings are:

  • Those under the management or control of a local housing authority, a registered social landlord or certain other public bodies those regulated under other enactments, such as care homes, children homes and bail hostels
  • Those occupied solely or mainly by students studying a full time course of further and higher education at a specified educational establishment which manages the building in question, and the specified educational establishment is subject to an approved code of practice and the building in question is subject to that code
  • Those that are occupied for the purpose of a religious community whose main occupation is prayer, contemplation, education, or the relief of suffering.
  • This exemption does not apply to a converted block of flats within the meaning of Section 257 of the 2004 Act occupied by such a community
  • Those that are occupied by a freeholder or long leaseholder and their household and any other persons not forming part of the household and not exceeding two in number (e.g. owner occupiers household and one or two lodgers) 
  • This does not apply to section 257 HMOs; those that are occupied by only two persons each of whom form a single household e.g. a flat share of no more than two persons.

Legislation and Standards

Housing Act 2004

Management Regulations for HMOs (with shared facilities)

Management Regulations for HMOs converted into self-contained flats

Mandatory Conditions of HMO Licences

HMO Licensing Standards

Standard Licensing Conditions

West of England Rental Standards

Guidance

HMO conditions for gardening, recycling and rubbish

LACoRS national fire safety guidance

Required documents

Fire risk assessment 

Undertaking of good practice

Electrical equipment checklist

Furniture and furnishing declaration

Checklists and notices

New HMO checklist

Regular HMO inspection checklist

Legionella checklist

Fire alarm notice

HMO Management, Recycling and Rubbish Notice

Documents

Last updated 09 August 2024

Climate Emergency Action Plan 2023 -24

Strategy

Climate Emergency Action Plan 2023 -24

This document is an overview of priority actions which the Council is taking to tackle the climate emergency.

  • Published date: 16 May 2023
  • Last updated: 19 May 2023

Details

It contains key actions categorised by strategic priority, noting progress and next steps, organised by the three priority areas for action:

  • Decarbonising Buildings: making energy efficiency improvement of the majority of existing buildings and zero-carbon new builds
  • Decarbonising Transport: a major shift to mass transport, walking and cycling to reduce transport emissions
  • A rapid and large-scale increase in Local Renewable Energy Generation

The final section lists the Council's strategies and policies that are supporting delivery of the strategic priorities.

This document is updated annually.

Documents

Last updated 19 May 2023

Economic Strategy Evidence Base

Corporate Report

Economic Strategy Evidence Base

Technical support document for core B&NES policy

  • Published date: 03 May 2023
  • Last updated: 03 May 2023

Documents

Details

This document contains detailed analysis of the following areas, which underpin our development of an update to our Economic Strategy:

  • Business demography
  • Employment Floorspace Losses
  • Economic Forecasts and Scenarios

Last updated 03 May 2023

Bath and North East Somerset Ward Profiles

Dataset

Bath and North East Somerset Ward Profiles

The ward profiles provide a summary of the Bath and North East Somerset population across a range of topics. The interactive dashboard allows for comparison of data across the 33 wards.

  • Published date: 02 May 2023
  • Last updated: 22 November 2023

Documents

Details

Tell us what you think of the Strategic Evidence Base

Last updated 22 November 2023

Subscribe to