Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Housing and Safety

RESOLVED that

1.      The submission of a bid to the HCA by CBH, as part of the consortium lead by Bromford Housing be endorsed.

2.      Further consideration be given to specific new build schemes once HCA funding has been allocated to Gloucestershire, prior to consultation and planning applications. 

3.      The principle of the affordable rents model as a way of accessing HCA funding be accepted and a housing review working group, with suggested terms of reference (Appendix 2) be set up to fully understand the impacts on housing outcomes.

4.      The Director Commissioning be authorised, in consultation with the Cabinet Member Housing & Safety and Borough Solicitor, to agree the new Articles and sign the resolution effecting the changes.

The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety introduced the report as circulated with the agenda.  She gave a detailed explanation of the background to the programme and the implications for the council and the potential impact on social and affordable housing in the borough.

She referred to an addendum to the report which had been circulated at the start of the meeting.  This referred to an amendment that was required to the Articles of Association of Cheltenham Borough Homes to ensure that they were a registered provider of social housing. Although this was implied in the current Articles it needed to be explicit in order to satisfy the Tenant Services Authority.

She emphasised the importance of the member working group but said that timescales were tight and therefore members should be aware of the high level of commitment involved before putting themselves forward.

Other Cabinet Members commented that the details of the scheme needed to be examined very carefully and therefore the role of the working group was very important. Another member highlighted that the changes being implemented by the government were high risk and could result in to two tiers of social housing tenants and increased deprivation unless carefully managed. He urged the Chief Executive and the working group to take a lead on addressing this risk. The risk could also extend to council tax payers and businesses if the block of housing benefit allocated by the government was insufficient.

In response to a question, the Cabinet Member Housing and Safety confirmed that the additional recommendation proposed in the report addendum was an executive matter and the reference to ‘Council’ in the addendum was a reference to the generic Council and not a meeting of full Council.

RESOLVED that

1.      The submission of a bid to the HCA by CBH, as part of the consortium lead by Bromford Housing be endorsed.

2.      Further consideration be given to specific new build schemes once HCA funding has been allocated to Gloucestershire, prior to consultation and planning applications. 

3.      The principle of the affordable rents model as a way of accessing HCA funding be accepted and a housing review working group, with suggested terms of reference (Appendix 2) be set up to fully understand the impacts on housing outcomes.

4.      The Director Commissioning be authorised, in consultation with the Cabinet Member Housing & Safety and Borough Solicitor, to agree the new Articles and sign the resolution effecting the changes.