Agenda item

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

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.