Agenda item

The Cabinet is requested to consider the agenda report and its appendix and to make the following recommendations to the Council:

That the Council:

(1)  Notes that funding of £1,386,067 has been allocated for the 2016-2017 financial year from the government’s Community Housing Fund to support community led housing developments.

(2)  Approves delegated authority being given to the Head of Housing and Environment Services, following consultation with the Cabinet Holder for Housing and Environment Services, to approve the spend of these funds in line with the government guidance issued with notification of the award (appendix 1) and the Council’s adopted Housing Strategy. 

RESOLVED

That the allocation of funding of £1,386,067 for the 2016-2017 financial year from the government’s Community Housing Fund to support community-led housing developments be noted.

RECOMMENDED TO THE COUNCIL

(1)   That the allocation of funding of £1,386,067 for the 2016-2017 financial year from the government’s Community Housing Fund to support community-led housing developments be noted.

(2)   That authority be delegated to the Head of Housing and Environment Services, following consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Members for Finance and Governance and for Housing and Environment Services, to approve the spend of the funds in para (1) above in line with government guidance issued with the notification of the award (appendix 1 to the agenda report) and Chichester District Council’s Housing Strategy.

The Cabinet received and considered the agenda report and its appendix and the fourth agenda supplement which reported a revised version of the second recommendation in para 2.2 of the report (copies attached to the official minutes).

The report was presented by Mrs Purnell.

Mrs Rudziak and Mrs Grange were in attendance for this item. 

Mrs Purnell summarised the objective of the government’s community-led housing development scheme and how CDC, which would be allocated £1,386,067 in two tranches, would be required to use the funds in the prescribed manner. The funds provided by this scheme would enable CDC to implement (as set out in para 3.3 of the report) the key priorities of its own Housing Strategy. The proposals for how the funds could be used were outlined in section 5 of the report.

Mrs Rudziak emphasised the opportunity afforded by the funding allocation to take forward CDC’s Housing Strategy. Officers needed to advise the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) as soon as possible of CDC’s proposals for utilising the funds to support community groups with housing initiatives.

Mrs Grange commented that despite the fairly slow take-up of interest in Community Land Trusts (CLTs) during 2016, parish councils were beginning to be enamoured with the concept and so the advent of this scheme with its funding was very timely. CDC was in fact making good progresspleasing advances with CLTs compared with many local authorities and this scheme would enable it to augment the very important preparatory work undertaken by housing officers.

Mrs Grange replied to members’ questions on points of details as to the period within which the funds had to be spent (it was not believed to be before the end of March 2017 but DCLG’s advice was being sought); the need to indicate to DCLG at this stage only ideas rather than preferences as to how the funds might be spent (CDC would, for example, looking at what Cornwall Council (which was experienced in CLTs) was planning to do); para 8.2 of the report stated that the funding initiative was not restricted to areas with the highest second-home ownership and, in fact, currently the parishes expressing an interest in the scheme were not necessarily those with more second homes.

The Cabinet concurred that this was a very exciting grassroots opportunity but it was important to ensure that local communities were given as much assistance as possible to understand and implement the opportunities this scheme presented. 

Decision

At the end of the discussion members voted unanimously on a show of hands in favour of making the recommendations (as amended by the fourth agenda supplement) to the Council meeting as set out below.

RESOLVED

That the allocation of funding of £1,386,067 for the 2016-2017 financial year from the government’s Community Housing Fund to support community-led housing developments be noted.

RECOMMENDED TO THE COUNCIL

(1)  That the allocation of funding of £1,386,067 for the 2016-2017 financial year from the government’s Community Housing Fund to support community-led housing developments be noted.

(2)  That authority be delegated to the Head of Housing and Environment Services, following consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Members for Finance and Governance and for Housing and Environment Services, to approve the spend of the funds in para (1) above in line with government guidance issued with the notification of the award (appendix 1 to the agenda report) and Chichester District Council’s Housing Strategy.