Purpose

The three-year Housing Revenue
Account Capital Programme for 2023-26 of £389.625m, of which
£311.357m is allocated to the new council homes programme,
was approved by Full Council on 1st March 2023. The available
budget has been allocated to the named schemes, which form the
Approved Housing Capital Programme and is expected to deliver 1,080
new homes. However, there is a pipeline of further schemes that is
currently unfunded.

This report sets out the approach to enabling the delivery of new
homes on the currently unfunded sites, through alternative delivery
routes, to ensure that supply of new homes continues to be
increased at pace to address overcrowding and the high levels of
housing need in the borough.

Content

DECISION:
 
1.   
Note the alternative delivery approaches set out in the
report.
 
2.   
To rescind the Cabinet decision of December 2021 to dispose
the Bromley Hall/Lochnagar Street site and to instead
include that site within the scope of the proposals in the
report.
 
3.   
The Mayor will approve the Heads of Terms of the final
agreements for each development package for the Joint Venture (JV)
Development Agreements, following consultation with the Chief
Executive and the interim Corporate Director of
Resources. 
 
4.   
Approve a revenue-funded budget allocation of £1.1m
from the HRA to cover the professional fees for legal, and
consultancy advice and any de-risking activity to potential sites
being delivered through the JV Development Agreement approach to
enable the alternative delivery route to be established and
progressed to the issue of the tender prospectus
 
5.   
Authorise  the Chief Executive, in
consultation with the Mayor and the interim Corporate Director of
Resources, to substitute schemes within the Approved HRA Capital
Programme.
 
6.   
After prior consultation with the Chief Executive and the
interim Corporate Director of Resources, the Mayor will authorise
them to take all necessary steps to deliver the approved capital
programme, including but not limited to 
going  out to tender,
appointing  consultants and contractors in
accordance with the Procurement Procedures, acquiring land
interests, appropriating   land from the
General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the delivery
of new council homes and exercising other rights of appropriation,
subject to approved budget.
 
7.   
Note the Equalities Impact Assessment and specific equalities
considerations as set out in Section 4 of the report.
 
ACTION BY:
DIRECTOR OF HOUSING (K.SWIFT)
Head of Housing Supply (R. Brandon)