Purpose

To authorise the payment of
£136,642 from affordable housing commuted sums to help pay
for eight homes delivered under the Local Authority Housing Fund
programme.

Content

Agreed.

Reasons for the decision

On 6 March 2023 The Cabinet agreed that the Council should get
involved in DLUHC’s Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF)
programme. It also agreed a contingency fund of up to
£750,000 from unallocated s106 affordable housing commuted
sums to part fund such homes.
 
On 14 March 2023 the Council
signed a DLUHC Memorandum of Understanding to deliver seventeen
homes under the programme. DLUHC paid £2,354,880 grant to the
Council (in two tranches) to partly fund the delivery of these
homes.
 
On 16 August 2023 the Council
and Platform Housing Limited, a housing association, signed a
Funding and Collaboration Agreement for Platform to deliver these
homes.
 
On 4 September 2023, The
Cabinet resolved:
 
That
the authorisation of payment of up to £750,000 from commuted
sums to progress the Local Authority Housing Fund programme be
delegated to the Deputy Chief Executive, in consultation with the
Housing and Customer Services Portfolio Holder, Monitoring Officer
and s151 Officer.
 
In the end, because the process
was extremely complex and therefore resource intensive for Platform
(and the Council), and because of market conditions, a final total
of eight homes were delivered in March 2024.
 
After Platform negotiated
discounts with developers, the total cost of the eight homes was
£2,887,000. Platform put in £1,465,460 of its own
monies to fund the homes. Under the terms of the Funding and
Collaboration Agreement the Council has (via Annexes B and C of the
Agreement) agreed to pay Platform the remaining
£1,411,540.
 
On 29 April 2024 DLUHC
confirmed that it had recalculated the amount of grant the Council
was entitled to pro rata for the eight homes (as opposed to the
original 17 homes specified in the Memorandum of Understanding) and
that it would be reclaiming £1,079,982 grant.
 
DLUHC grant received =
£2,354,880.
Grant to be reclaimed by DLUHC
= £1,079,982.
Available grant =
£1,274,898 (£2,354,880 minus
£1,079,982).
 
The Council has agreed to pay
Platform £1,411,540 of which £1,274,898 will be DLUHC
grant. This leaves a funding shortfall of £136,642 which will
come from affordable housing commuted sums. There are ample
commuted sums available.
 

Alternative options considered

The Council is contractually
committed via the Funding and Collaboration Agreement to pay
Platform £1,411,540.
 
A contingency fund of up to
£750,000 from affordable housing commuted sums for this
project has been agreed as has a delegation to the Deputy Chief
Executive in consultation with the Housing and Customer Services
Portfolio Holder, Monitoring Officer and s151 Officer to authorise
any such expenditure.
 
This decision authorises the
use of £136,642 affordable housing commuted sums to help pay
for the Local Authority Housing Fund programme.