Agenda item

To consider the report of the Head of Housing Services – report circulated.

The Head of Housing Services presented the report setting out the implications of the housing market downturn and the Council’s response, particularly in relation to the provision of affordable housing. 

A Member referred to the importance of sheltered and supported accommodation for the elderly within their local areas.

In response to another Member, the Head of Housing Services explained the policies relating to affordable housing provision including the split between affordable and market value properties within developments and the different types of affordable housing being offered. The current requirement was 25% and although consideration had been given as part of the Local Development Framework process to increase the affordable housing requirement for development to 35% this was unlikely to be pursued at present. Developers were now seeking to progress with affordable housing provision in order to utilise Government grants and thus maintain their turnover until the market improved. They were presently unwilling to build houses for sale at market value and were focusing on social housing provision. As part of this process, they were also offering to increase social housing provision above that agreed in the planning permission. Detailed discussions were therefore necessary with developers to reach agreement on both planning and management issues. The distribution of social housing throughout a site was an issue, with developers reluctant to pepper-pot throughout a site. Housing staff were working closely with developers and housing associations in the City to offer help and advice, where possible, to enable the completion of developments currently on site or to start schemes with planning consent on sites with Section 106 agreements attached.

The Head of Housing Services also explained the policies relating to property acquisition for the provision of social housing. In particular, the Council, with local housing associations, were looking to acquire extra units from developers to give them certainty of sales and therefore the confidence to either continue on site or progress towards a start-on-site date. He also briefly referred to policies in respect of the management of existing stock.

With regard to negotiations with developers, it would be necessary to adopt a flexible approach to the negotiation of existing Section 106 agreements to ensure that opportunities to procure new affordable housing were maximised and that developers were helped to regain the confidence to start building. The Head of Planning and Building Control already had powers to agree minor variations to the terms of existing and proposed Section 106 agreements in consultation with the Head of Legal Services and the Chair of the Planning Committee. To ensure speed in responding to requests to vary Section 106 agreements, it was proposed that the scheme of delegations continue where such changes are supported by the Head of Housing Services and the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Social Inclusion. Given the fast moving situation within the housing market and the need to respond quickly and flexibly, it was important that officers had the ability to negotiate such deals with developers and vary existing Section 106 agreements where necessary.

A Member expressed concern that Member involvement would be limited to those set out in the recommendation and suggested that Ward Members could be involved and possibly the Planning Committee Area Working Parties. He suggested that Executive should be made aware of this concern, particularly the need to involve Members of the Planning Committee more, and that it should be asked to put forward alternative option(s) to the proposed delegation for further consideration by this Scrutiny Committee.

Scrutiny Committee - Community noted and supported the report and requested Executive to:-

(1)       maintain a flexible approach to renegotiate and vary existing Section 106 agreements and consents to encourage the development of affordable housing wherever possible;

(2)        agree that variations to the specific terms of Section106 agreements regarding affordable housing, where neither the overall proportion of affordable housing nor the proportion of affordable housing for rent is reduced, should be treated as minor and therefore included in the scheme of delegations; and

(3)       give consideration to amending the following proposed change to the scheme of delegations:-

                        authorise the Head of Planning and Building Control, in consultation with the Head of Legal Services and the Chair of the Planning Committee and subject to the support of the Head of Housing Services and the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Social Inclusion to make decisions as set out in (2) above.

(Report circulated)