Agenda item

Report of the Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health.

Recommendations:

1.    That Cabinet approves the release of the Council owned sites listed in Appendix 3 for residential development, subject to written confirmation of agreement by the relevant Ward Members.

2.    That Cabinet approves the programme of strategic acquisition opportunities listed in Exempt Appendix 4, and that authority is delegated to the Assistant Director of Planning, Regeneration and Transport to purchase homes from private developers or the open market to add to the Council’s stock with the agreement of the Assistant Director of Housing, Section 151 Officer and Cabinet Member for Housing. This is subject to the budget parameters as set out in the Council’s approved Capital Programme.  This delegation is proposed to apply until April 2022 when the next annual programme will be reported to Cabinet.

3.    That authority be delegated to the Assistant Director of Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and the Section 151 Officer, to enter into an Affordable Homes Programme grant funding agreement with Homes England, for all eligible sites listed in Appendix 3.

Consideration was given to the second annual housing development report under the new reporting arrangements agreed by Cabinet on 21st September, 2020. The report set out the housing growth progress made in 2020/21 and proposed projects for 2021/22. The proposed projects were aligned with the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan which had been approved by Council in January 2021. Appendix 3 to the report listed the sites proposed for development and Appendix 4 provided a list of potential strategic acquisition opportunities.

The Cabinet Member for Housing described the overall summary of housing growth progress over the past 12 months as set out in paragraph 1.2 of the report. The Council were projected to achieve their year-end target of 175 homes. The Bellows scheme had been completed and yielded 58 homes and the Site Clusters scheme had also been completed resulting in 217 homes. The Rotherham Town Centre housing scheme had started and was expected to yield 171 homes. The Council were also onsite at the Chesterhill Avenue and Whinney Hill programme which was expected to result in another 237 homes.

Work was on-going on the garage site residential development which would be progressed in consultation with residents and Councillors. The Council would take a blended approach to developments, combing direct Council build, strategic acquisitions and housing association delivery for the 2021/22 programme. This would allow each site to be judged on its own merits and would subsequently lead to a significant number of new homes for the Council. The new homes were needed as there were around 6,800 applicants on the waiting list for Council housing in Rotherham.

The Leader expressed his support for the plan and celebrated the achievements of the previous year, specifically the Bellow development which had taken a long time to come to fruition.

The report had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board as part of the pre-decision scrutiny process. The Board were fully supportive of the recommendations. The Board also requested that relevant Ward Members be made formal consultees in the process for strategic acquisition opportunities and that consideration be given to the provision of financial support to enable vulnerable tenants to empty their garage or to clear their garage plot when a garage site was being developed for housing. Cabinet accepted the 2 additional recommendations.

Resolved:-

1.    That Cabinet approves the release of the Council owned sites listed in Appendix 3 for residential development, subject to written confirmation of agreement by the relevant Ward Members.

2.    That Cabinet approves the programme of strategic acquisition opportunities listed in Exempt Appendix 4, and that authority is delegated to the Assistant Director of Planning, Regeneration and Transport to purchase homes from private developers or the open market to add to the Council’s stock with the agreement of the Assistant Director of Housing, Section 151 Officer and Cabinet Member for Housing. This is subject to the budget parameters as set out in the Council’s approved Capital Programme. This delegation is proposed to apply until April 2022 when the next annual programme will be reported to Cabinet.

3.    That authority be delegated to the Assistant Director of Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and the Section 151 Officer, to enter into an Affordable Homes Programme grant funding agreement with Homes England, for all eligible sites listed in Appendix 3.

4.    That for the programme of strategic acquisition opportunities, that relevant Ward Members are made formal consultees in the process.

5.    That consideration be given to the provision of financial support to enable vulnerable tenants to empty their garage or to clear their garage plot when a garage site was being developed for housing.