Agenda item

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

Recommendations:

1. That Cabinet approves the additional Council-owned sites listed in Appendix 1 being brought forward to deliver new Council homes.

2. That Cabinet approves the purchase of homes from the additional schemes identified in Exempt Appendix 2.

3. That Cabinet delegates authority to the Council’s Property Officer (Assistant Director for Planning, Regeneration and Transport) to purchase additional homes from private developers or the open market to add to the Council’s housing stock, with the agreement of the Assistant Director for Housing, Cabinet Member for Housing and Section 151 Officer.

4. That Cabinet notes the other updates contained within this report and agrees to receive a further update in six months’ time.

Consideration was given to the report which provided an update on the Housing Delivery Programme, summarising progress since the previous programme report was approved by Cabinet in January 2023. Several changes were required to the programme and renewed approvals were sought accordingly. An updated list of sites proposed for development was included and Cabinet were informed of the updated list of potential strategic acquisition opportunities as part of a confidential appendix to the report.

This was the mid-year report which indicated the main achievements were around the town centre Trilogy collection, which had been a major development that had delivered 171 homes. Other notable updates were completions at Dinnington and Swallownest. The Council had employed a developer’s agent to add to the existing service provision.

At the time of the meeting the Council had 609 homes completed and the projection for the end of the project in March 2026 was to complete 1125 homes.

The report included a delegation to enable the council to be nimble and reactive regarding purchases where needed to ensure no opportunities are missed.

It was clarified that the Council recognised the need for bungalows within communities and a list of the proportion of acquisitions that were bungalows would be provided to the Deputy Leader. The provision of bungalows would continue to be an important part of the acquisitions programme with the recognition for all house types across the borough.

Cabinet was provided with an extensive list of proposed acquisitions, this enabled due diligence to be carried out on the proposals and just because certain properties were not being considered at the current time, it did not preclude them from being considered in the future.

Resolved: That Cabinet:

1.    Approved the additional Council-owned sites listed in Appendix 1 being brought forward to deliver new Council homes.

2.    Approved the purchase of homes from the additional schemes identified in Exempt Appendix 2.

3.    Delegated authority to the Council’s Property Officer (Assistant Director for Planning, Regeneration and Transport) to purchase additional homes from private developers or the open market to add to the Council’s housing stock, with the agreement of the Assistant Director for Housing, Cabinet Member for Housing and Section 151 Officer.

4.    Noted the other updates contained within this report and agreed to receive a further update in six months’ time.