Sussex Environmental Health Officers' Group
The Sussex Housing Group (SHG) was formed in 1973 and is an active and well supported sub group of the Sussex Branch of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). Representatives drawn from private sector housing specialists from all district and unitary authorities in the geographical county of Sussex meet at least every two months. The Group also liaises with the Sussex Chief Environmental Health Officers Group.
The continued high level of support from members reflects an acceptance of the importance of housing related functions within the framework of environmental health and the need for a holistic approach to decent housing.
The Group has addressed a wide range of private sector housing and renewal based issues year as well as providing a valuable forum for members to share experience, to seek to uniform approaches where possible and to discuss difficult and unusual cases. Sub groups are formed when necessary e.g. HMO (houses in multiple occupation) licensing, HMO standards, Private Sector Housing benchmarking. The Group also works with other agencies such as the two county fire and rescue services on matters of shared interest.
There are very few training opportunities to cover the needs of housing specialists. The Group has therefore worked closely with the BEST (Brighton and East Sussex Together) Learning & Development consortium to organise affordable one day courses for electrical training, and excess cold. Further training is planned for fire safety and overcrowding.
The Group organised the programme for the highly successful housing focused CIEH South East Members Forum held in early 2009.
The Group is currently chaired by Nigel Divers, Brighton and Hove City Council:
nigel.divers@brighton-hove.gov.uk
The secretary is Mark Randolph, Rother District Council:
mark.randolph@rother.gov.uk
Last updated: 23 April 2010