Decision details

Consortium Agreement Cheltenham Borough Council (CBC) and Cheltenham Borough Homes (CBH) and Homes England (HE)

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

The proposed consortium agreement will allow either CBC or CBH (in its capacity as Registered Provider) to make bids for and receive grant funding for the delivery of affordable housing under HE’s Affordable Housing Programme. (As lead partner, CBH would be required to make bids on our behalf).

 

It should be noted that the draft agreement merely provides a framework that will enable future grant funding to be received by CBC. Any necessary approvals would therefore still be required, in accordance with CBC’s constitution, before any such grant funding from HE could be received.


For the purposes of this agreement, CBC will not a present be receiving any grant funding-the proposed agreement relates specifically to grant funding that CBH has been successful in making a bid for, to assist in the provisions of 7 new Affordable Rented homes (£105,000 for Gresham Court, Hesters Way).

 

A key element of the proposed agreement is that CBH will be the lead partner. This means that CBH will be required to make all the bids for funding and returns on HE’s Investment Management System. Given that there are a number of warranties and representations that CBC will be deemed to give at various stages, One Legal have advised that CBC and CBH should agree a process by which CBC can sign-off the information being uploaded to the Investment Management System. CBC and CBH have therefore agreed to set up a process to cover this matter off.

 

CBC has also been advised by One Legal that either party could be made to repay a future grant to HE in the event of a breach of the terms of the agreement, even if they were not the defaulting party. CBC has therefore been advised that we should enter into a separate agreement with CBH to set out the process for CBH to act on CBC’s behalf in submitting the bids and allocating liability if there was ever a requirement to repay grant to HE. Again, CBC and CBH will undertake to do this.

 

Finally, it should be noted that this agreement will last until 31 March 2022.

Decision:

To enter into a consortium agreement between Cheltenham Borough council (CBC), Cheltenham Borough Homes (CBH) and Homes England (HE) to provide the framework for the receipt of grant funding from HE’s Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21.

Alternative options considered:

CBH could enter into a single entity agreement with HE for the receipt of grant funding in its own right, in its capacity as a Registered Provider. However, this would mean that should CBC wish to receive grant funding for future schemes, then it would be required to enter into a separate agreement with HE. Moreover, CBC would then have to be the lead partner, which would require CBC to secure Investment Partner status with HE first. Whilst this is perfectly achievable, it is a more bureaucratic and time consuming way of achieving the same outcome as entering into a consortium agreement with CBH, as detailed above.

Other reasons / organisations consulted

Discussions have been undertaken with Head of Property Services and CBC’s S151 Officer. Both support the above proposals. One Legal have also been involved in the discussions, and key points arising from their advice have been captured in Section 4 above.

Publication date: 20/03/2018

Date of decision: 19/03/2018

Accompanying Documents: