Agenda item
PROGRESS ON DELIVERING DENBIGHSHIRE'S HOUSING STRATEGY: THEME 2 - CREATING A SUPPLY OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING
To consider a report (copy attached) by the Strategic
Planning and Housing Manager on the delivery of the
Council’s Housing Strategy Theme 2: Creating a supply of affordable housing.
10.10am – 10.45am
Minutes:
The Lead Member for Finance, Corporate Plan and Performance,
introduced the report (previously circulated) in the absence of the Lead Member
for Modernisation and Housing. The Lead
Member confirmed the report was an update to Scrutiny Members on the progress
made to date in delivering the key outcomes and actions in relation to
affordable housing identified in Denbighshire’s Housing Strategy. The Strategy had been adopted by Council on 1
December 2015.
The Lead Member advised that the Housing Strategy Delivery
Group regularly monitored the delivery of the Housing Strategy in its entirety,
and identified solutions for addressing any barriers to delivery. He advised that all targets in the Action
Plan were on target at present. A key
strand for creating a supply of affordable housing, and the development of
locality plans for social housing needs in all areas of the county, was
underway. A number of sites had been acquired
for the purpose of building new homes.
In addition, properties had also been purchased with a view to
increasing the number of social housing units in the county. These purchases included former local authority
houses previously sold under the “Right to Buy” scheme.
The Strategic Planning and Housing Manager outlined the
background to the Housing Strategy’s development via a PowerPoint
presentation. The five themes which made
up the Strategy were:
(i)
More homes to meet local need and demand;
(ii)
Creating a supply of affordable homes;
(iii)
Ensuring safe & healthy homes;
(iv)
Homes and support for vulnerable people; and
(v)
Promoting and supporting communities.
The Strategic Planning and Housing Manager explained how the
five themes had been incorporated into an action plan, and the progress to date
with the implementation of themes 1 and 2.
She advised that with respect to Theme 2, 57 new properties had been
enabled as affordable dwellings during 2015-16 (these comprised of 7 homebuys; 10 empty homes; 24 new builds; 6 privately
financed by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and 10 leased as accommodation
for homeless people). Feedback received
from residents who had benefited from these schemes had been extremely
positive.
It had been acknowledged that major housing developments,
which would trigger the affordable housing provision requirement on site, had
not been built in recent years due to the economic downturn. However, there had been indications that
developers were looking to build in the near future. Therefore, the Council had produced housing
site prospectuses and issued them to developers in a bid to entice them to
start developing the sites.
With a view to increasing the number of affordable housing
units available throughout the county, the Council had approved a Housing
Revenue Account (HRA) 30 year business plan and applied for permission to
suspend the “Right to Buy” scheme. The
Planning Policy and Housing Strategy teams had also been consolidated under one
Head of Service in a bid to reduce the time involved in delivering housing related
projects.
Responding to Members’ questions the Lead Member for Public
Realm, the Lead Member for Finance, Corporate Plan and Performance, and
Officers:
·
advised that the new staffing structure in place
should contribute towards the delivery of the Housing Strategy within the
intended timescale;
·
confirmed that some residents were now objecting
to planning applications submitted for large developments, but as the sites had
already been designated under the Local Development Plan (LDP), as housing development
land, they had insufficient grounds to object to the application unless they
veered considerably from the agreed designation or major safety concerns came
to light;
·
advised that now the
Council had opted out of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Subsidy System and
was administering its own HRA, it would again be facilitating/enabling the
building of affordable homes. As a
housing enabler the council would be delivering housing developments to provide
homes which reflected the local demography and which were sustainable in the
long-term. It was felt that this
approach would give the authority the maximum return on its HRA investments;
·
confirmed that the term a housing “unit” was a
self-contained home;
·
advised that a number
of units had been purchased to date and other purchases were in the pipeline
pending new developments being built.
The latter element would require a longer period of time for delivery;
·
outlined plans currently under consideration for
the development of larger affordable homes;
·
confirmed that RSLs were regulated in the same
way as local authority housing departments providing homes for local people;
·
advised that, in
addition to funding provided to local authorities via the Social Housing Grant
(SHG), the Welsh Government (WG) had a tendency to announce quite substantial
additional funding for housing related matters late in the financial year. This timing meant it was very difficult to
utilise the money effectively at such short notice, hence the Council’s
decision to have development briefs adopted in advance to enable the authority
to utilise the money to its maximum potential if and when it was awarded;
·
confirmed that officers
would be discussing and consulting on the Locality Plans for each area with all
Member Area Groups (MAGs) once the initial analyses had been undertaken.
RESOLVED that subject to
the above observations:
(i)
to
endorse the progress made to date with delivering Theme 2 of the Local Housing
Strategy: Creating a Supply of Affordable Homes: and
(ii)
instruct the Scrutiny
Co-ordinator to liaise with the Lead Member for Modernisation and Housing and
the Heads of Service to schedule regular monitoring of the delivery of each of
the Local Housing Strategy’s Action Plan themes into the Committee’s Forward
Work Programme.
Supporting documents:
- Affordable housing Report 290916, item 6. PDF 101 KB
- Affordable housing Report - App 1 290916, item 6. PDF 257 KB