To receive a presentation by Alex Colyer, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Executive Director (Corporate Services)
Minutes:
Alex Colyer, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Executive Director (Corporate Services), provided the Joint Assembly with a presentation on affordable housing delivery.
It was noted that access to housing, especially affordable housing, was a barrier to economic growth and there was an implicit target to deliver up to 13,000 extra homes in the period to 2031. Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council were also planning to provide up to 4,000 new council houses by 2045. Both Councils were keen to deliver more, however, it was not possible for the Councils to raise new borrowing to finance this. As part of City Deal negotiations the Government was asked to remove the debt cap, however, the Government had a clear priority to reduce national debt and since all local authority borrowing counted as national debt, the cap had remained in place.
In terms of the offer within the City Deal, partners had committed to provide an additional 1,000 affordable units on rural exception sites which were in addition to the numbers included in the Local Plans. These would be built on windfall sites, predominantly or wholly within South Cambridgeshire.
The following new vehicles for local solutions to housing delivery were noted:
· Property management, consisting of:
- a limited company structure;
- investment in and management of stock directly;
- acquisition of sites for development;
- the provision of loan and equity finance from partners;
- the transferring of land holdings in exchange for equity by partners;
- the charging of rent to cover operational and financing costs.
· A strategic housing delivery vehicle, which would:
- identify specific sites;
- appraise schemes;
- consult with local communities and residents;
- undertaken design and planning;
- commission building works;
- be paid for from a charge per unit.
It was reported that 27 new homes had been delivered to the end of 2013/14, including 20 new apartments for older people, with 69 new homes due to be complete by the end of March 2014/15 on a mix of garage and small in-fill sites including the redevelopment of existing poorest standard housing. In addition, 83 further homes were due to be completed by the end of 2015.
Sites where housing had already been delivered or was planned for delivery included Linton, Swavesey, Bourn and Foxton. Assembly Members also noted that the development at Northstowe would include investment in a Joint Venture with the Homes and Community Agency to develop a proportion of affordable housing on-site.
South Cambridgeshire District Council’s housing company, called Ermine Street Housing, had been established and was now operating in the private rental market. The University had also committed £30 million to in-principle investment in the City Deal Housing Joint Venture. Exception sites were already being identified by the partner Councils, with the first site confirmed as coming forward at Littlington.
The Chairman thanked Mr Colyer for the presentation and in view of the lengthy duration of the meeting it was AGREED that debate on this item would be referred to the next meeting of the Joint Assembly.