The material relevant to this item is the report on pages 25 to 27 of the agenda considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 2 October 2018.
RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL
That the allocation of £165,000 commuted sum monies to Windsor and District Housing Association Ltd (Radian) to fund the delivery of eight additional affordable units at Flat Farm Hambrook be approved.
Minutes:
The Council considered the recommendation made to it by the Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 2 October 2018, as set out in the Cabinet report (pages 25 to 27 of the Cabinet agenda).
Mrs J Kilby (Cabinet Member for Housing Services) formally moved the Cabinet’s recommendation and this was seconded by Mrs S Taylor (Cabinet Member for Planning Services).
Mrs Kilby presented the Cabinet’s recommendation by summarising the report. CDC currently held just under £1.2m unallocated commuted sum monies, which had been received by developers when on-site affordable units were impossible to provide eg when the contribution due was for only a fraction of a unit. This commuted sum fund was set aside solely to enable affordable housing. Of the £1.2m, just over £221,000 had been received from schemes in the parish of Chidham and Hambrook. Radian Housing Association had obtained planning permission to demolish an existing house and to develop 11 new homes. Three of those units were secured as shared ownership affordable housing within the section 106 agreement, with the rest to be market sale homes. Practical completion of the site was expected at the end of October 2018. However, due to issues of mortgage availability on the site Radian was willing to deliver all of the units as affordable rented properties. Accordingly, it had applied to vary the section 106 agreement and the usual consultations would take place before any decision was made. As the scheme was acquired as a market site, Radian needed a £165,000 grant to supplement that which had already been awarded from central government to enable the viability of an affordable housing scheme. This was a great cost-effective opportunity to provide more much-needed high quality affordable housing for local people. There were currently 17 households on CDC’s housing register which claimed a local connection to the Chidham and Hambrook parish. As there were no other affordable rented units programmed for the parish up to 2029, this could be the last chance for an appreciable time for local people to be housed within that area. It was a fitting opportunity to allocate £165,000 of the sums received from the developments within Chidham and Hambrook parish, thereby enabling the parish to benefit directly from earlier development.
Mr J Brown (Southbourne) said that it seemed that the developer had obtained planning permission to deliver market housing but for some reason (he noted that electricity pylons crossed the site) it was unable to provide the full number of units and was now in effect asking CDC to make up the shortfall and subsidise the building of affordable housing.
Mrs Kilby replied that some of the houses were shared ownership units and the developer would bring these forward. Mrs L Rudziak (Director of Housing and Communities) said that originally the site was to have had three shared ownership and eight market units. The proposed allocation did not amount to a subsidy to meet a shortfall in a market site but was a means of providing additional affordable rented housing.
Mr R Hayes (Southbourne) commended this well-thought out idea to provide affordable housing to those with a local connection who were in need of it.
Decision
On a show of hands the members voted in favour of the Cabinet’s recommendation with no votes against and one abstention.
RESOLVED
That the allocation of £165,000 commuted sum monies to Windsor and District Housing Association Ltd (Radian) to fund the delivery of eight additional affordable units at Flat Farm Hambrook be approved.