Agenda and minutes

Consideration was given as to who should preside over the special joint meeting of the Performance Monitoring Panel and Policy Development Panel.

AGREED:

That Councillor A Harrison be elected Chairman for the duration of the special joint meeting of the Performance Monitoring Panel and Policy Development Panel.

(Members are no longer required to declare personal or prejudicial interests but are to declare any new Disclosable Pecuniary Interests that are not currently included within their Register of Interests.

Members are reminded that under the Code of Conduct they are not to participate in the whole of an agenda item to which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest.  In the interests of transparency, members may also wish to declare any other interests that they have, in relation to an agenda item, that supports the Nolan principles detailed within the Code of Conduct.)  

There were none.

Julie Kennealy (Executive Director (Place)) was in attendance to present to the Special Joint Panel meeting the business case and accompanying information on the establishment of a new housing company. 

The Executive Director introduced The Housing Manager, Housing Landlord Manager, Strategic Housing Manager and Senior Business Partner (CPBS) who had been working towards the establishment of the housing company. 

The officers provided members of the Panel with a presentation, an overview of the work they had been doing.  In addition to the presentation consideration was given to the report of the Portfolio Holder for Strategic Finance and the Portfolio Holder for Housing Landlord on the draft Housing Company Business Plan.  

The role of council in meeting the housing needs of their districts was changing.  Local authorities were increasingly looking at the role they could play in stimulating and delivering new local housing investment.  The drivers for taking a leading role in housing development were to directly address local housing supply shortfalls and could help generate additional revenue to support other identified priorities. 

The Localism Act 2011 had played a key role in shifting how local authorities viewed their role in meeting the broader strategic housing  needs of their districts.  The Act introduced a new ‘General Power of Competence’, which gifted councils the power to take reasonable action needed ‘for the benefit of the authority, its area or persons resident or present within its area’.

The general power of competence, along with an acknowledgment that house-building rates were not maintaining pace with the scale of household and population growth had seen local authorities take increasingly proactive and innovative approaches to investing in and delivering new housing.  The new role was best defined within the influential government commissioned  House/Elphicke ‘Review into the local authority role in housing supply ‘ (2015), which made the case that the role of local authorities needed to shift to a position of becoming an enable of housing to have met the wider strategic need of their districts. 

South Holland was a district with a growing population.  Over the next 20 years the number of households living within the District was projected to increase by over 27%.  An estimated 600 homes were to be required to be built every year over that period to have kept up the demand from growth in population and the economy.  House prices were rising, the cost of renting in private sector housing was increasing and the need for more affordable housing continued to grow.  Demand and need were increasing for different types of housing across all tenures. 

At the same time and was the case nationally, housing delivery within South Holland  had not kept up with demand and need.  Although several large housing providers and developers worked within the District, their efforts alone had not been sufficient to ensure that all of the housing that was needed within the District was provided. 

The combination of new powers, along with a local challenge that required a proactive solution presented a significant opportunity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

To consider resolving that, under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 3 and 5of Schedule 12A of the Act.

AGREED: 

It was resolved that, under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 3 and 5 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Appendices A - D

Members considered the Business Plan and Financial Summary data and its accompanying appendices A – D.

There will be an opportunity for members to consider details of the financial model in confidential session.

Members gave consideration to the Financial Model which accompanied the Business Plan for the establishment of a new Housing Company. 

There were none.