Content

Salford City Council - Record of Decision (Cabinet)
 
I
Paul Dennett, City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained
within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve: Local Authority Housing Fund
(Round 2 + 3)
The Reasons are:
Note the invitation
to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding under the recently
announced Round 3 LAHF.
 
Delegate authority
to the Executive Director of Place in consultation with the Section
151 officer to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with
the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
under Round 3 to commit to providing accommodation in line with the
objectives of Round 3 of the Local Authority Housing Fund
(LAHF).
 
Delegate authority
to the Executive Director of Place in
consultation with the Section 151 officer to enter into relevant
agreements with delivery partners for rounds 2 and 3 of the Local
Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) in accordance with the Memorandum of
Understanding between Salford City Council and the Department for
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
 
Options considered and rejected
were:
The
LAHF prospectus and guidance allows Local authorities to determine
the most effective means to deliver in line with the fund
objectives in their area.
Different Registered Providers in Salford were contacted in
relation to delivering under the LAHF. The decision to allow
ForHousing Limited and Derive Group to deliver under the LAHF was
made in response to a lack of suitable response/interest from other
providers.
Further options were considered in determining the best way to
allocate the grant to partners delivering under the fund. Legal
advice was sought in order to determine the best way to approach
this, with funding agreements between providers being the preferred
choice.
Assessment of Risk:
Low - The principal risk to the
council is for it to not meet the requirements under the MOU of the
LAHF Round 2 + 3. The council will need to ensure that delivery
partners maintain the homes under the terms of the grant as
specified in the MOU. Should any partners fail to adhere to the
delivery arrangements, they may be subject to clawback of grant
from DLUHC which will have no effect on council budgets.
 
Failure to meet the delivery
targets will result in the repayment of unallocated LAHF grant at
no cost to council budgets.
 
The source of funding is:
The
Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities have allocated
capital funding under section 31 of the Local Government Act
2003.
Legal Advice obtained:
The council has entered into a
Round 2 LAHF MOU with DLUHC, dated 5 September 2023, under which
DLUHC has agreed to award the council total Round 2 LAHF grant of
£1,080,000.  Under the Round 2
LAHF MOU the council has agreed to use the Round 2 LAHF grant to
fund the delivery of 10 Round 2 LAHF homes, of which 9 are to be
used initially to provide accommodation for households that meet
the resettlement scheme eligibility criteria outlined in section
3.2 of DLUHC’s Round 2 LAHF Prospectus (the
“Prospectus”) and 1 is to be allocated to
households that meet the Temporary Accommodation element
eligibility criteria outline in section 3.2 of the
Prospectus.  The council is required to
ensure that the Round 2 LAHF grant is used in accordance with
DLUHC’s requirements as set out in the Round 2 LAHF MOU and
the Prospectus.  This includes an
obligation on the part of the council to ensure that the 10 Round 2
LAHF homes become available to support wider local authority
general housing and homelessness responsibilities after the
immediate needs of DLUHC’s defined Round 2 “Eligible
Cohorts” have been addressed.
 
Under the Round 2 LAHF MOU and
the Prospectus the council is able “to work in partnership
with private Registered Providers, local authority housing
companies or other bodies” to deliver Round 2 LAHF
homes.  The council has received an
expression of interest from ForHousing Limited (which is registered
with the Regulator Social Housing as a registered provider of
social housing) and is proposing to pass £135,000 of Round 2
LAHF Grant to ForHousing to part-fund the acquisition costs of the
two properties listed in the table included at Fig. 1.  The council will enter into a Grant Funding
Agreement with ForHousing which will require ForHousing to agree to
ensure that these 2 Round 2 LAHF homes are used both initially and
in the longer-term in accordance with DLUHC’s requirements
under the Round 2 LAHF MOU and the Prospectus.
 
The
council has also received an expression of interest from
Dérive Group and is proposing to pass £193,280 of
DLUHC Round 2 LAHF grant onto Dérive Group to Dérive
Group to part-fund the acquisition costs of 2 new build open market
housing units at the Brackley Golf Club development for use as
Round 2 LAHF Homes as detailed in the table attached at Fig
1.  The council is proposing to use
£566,939,20 of the Round 2 LAHF grant to part-fund the
construction by the council of 6 new housing units at the
Council’s St Lukes development as detailed in the table
attached at Fig 1., which will be transferred to Dérive
Group for use as LAHF accommodation at practical completion. The
council will enter into grant funding/legal agreements with Group
to ensure that the 8 Round 2 LAHF homes which have been funded
through DLUHC Round 2 LAHF grant are used by Dérive Group in
accordance with DLUHC’s requirements under the Round 2 LAHF
MOU and the Prospectus
 
Financial Advice obtained:
Following the announcement of
Round 2 Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF), the council has now
entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the
department for levelling up, housing and communities (DLUHC) which
sets out the terms of delivering the Round 2 LAHF programme.
Under Round 2, the council has been allocated £1,080,000 to
deliver an additional 10 LAHF housing units. Dérive
(Salford) Group and ForHousing have agreed to be the delivery
partners for the 10 Round 2 LAHF homes.

As with Round 1 of LAHF funding, to mitigate risk, the council are
proposing that delivery partners (ForHousing and Dérive
Group) enter into a Grant Funding Agreement when using LAHF grant
to acquire properties and an agreement with (Dérive Group)
upon transfer of properties after using LAHF grant to fund
construction costs, to ensure that partners accessing funding do so
in accordance with the council’s obligations to the
memorandum of understanding.
 
Where the council is reliant on
partners to deliver the units, it will introduce sufficient
measures to ensure that partners accessing funding do so in
accordance with the councils’ obligations to the memorandum
of understanding. The agreements specify that delivery partners
ensure that homes will be affordable/low-cost housing for the
remainder of their lifetime.

The Council has received the full allocation amount under LAHF
Round 1 of £1,965,984 and the full allocation under Round 2
of £1,080,000.

Under Round 3 LAHF grant funding, the council has been allocated a
further £683,500 to deliver an additional 6 LAHF housing
units. The council will enter into a MOU with DLUHC under Round 3
LAHF and will be seeking expressions of interest from delivery
partners to which grant funding agreements will be entered
into
 
Procurement Advice obtained:
N/A
HR Advice obtained:
N/A
Climate Change Advice obtained:
Part of the LAHF delivery, from
Dérive, is in the form of new build accommodation built to
Dérive’s low energy low carbon standard. These new
homes meet both current and future building regulations and are
optimized for net zero and meet the predicted capacity of a future
decarbonised grid.
 
Open market acquisitions under
the LAHF may not be to the same low carbon standard as new build
homes delivered by Dérive Group however the additional
uplift fund available for each LAHF property may be used towards
refurbishing and improving existing energy efficiency
measures.
 
The
following documents have been used to assist the decision
process:
 
Contact Officer:        James Barrett                      
Telephone number: james.barrett@salford.gov.uk
 
The appropriate scrutiny to
call-in the decision is the Growth and Prosperity Scrutiny
Panel.

 

Signed:
           Paul
Dennett         Dated:
  28.05.24                                      
                            City
Mayor
 

For Democratic Services Use Only

This decision was
published on  28.05.24                                           

This decision will
come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 04.06.24                   
                              
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.