Agenda item

Paul Stephenson, Chief Executive and Peter Hatch, Executive Director – Property and Communities (CBH)

The Chairman reminded members that the committee had previously decided that it wanted to give consideration to undertaking some form of scrutiny of the indices of deprivation.  The Lead Members had decided that before making a decision on if and how to scrutinise this issue, the committee should first hear from CBH with regard to the ‘Masterplan’ that they were currently developing , and what it could do to address some of the issues.  He noted that the committee would also hear from the Communities Partnership at a future meeting, to hear about the work they were doing to address issues relating to the indices of deprivation.

Paul Stephenson, Chief Executive and Peter Hatch, Executive Director - Properties and Communities, of Cheltenham Borough Homes (CBH) introduced themselves to the committee.  Paul Stephenson thanked the committee for providing the opportunity to present details of the project, which commenced in September 2017 and would culminate in a completed masterplan by July 2018, and which represented a significant piece of work for CBH. 

Nash Partnerships, independent consultants specialising in community engagement in planning and regeneration and the architects responsible for the St. Pauls regeneration scheme, were appointed to undertake the consultation.  The feedback from this consultation, along with the comprehensive financial analysis for each of the 14 sites, could result in 4 to 5 options which supported the project outcomes (as detailed in the pictorial which had been circulated with the agenda) and whilst housing was a large part of this, the socio-economic benefits were a key element.  This project required a collaborative approach and with this in mind, a Programme Board had been established with Tim Atkins, Managing Director of Place and Economic Development at CBC, having been appointed as Chairman.  Because this project was not simply about housing, Nash Partnerships were undertaking a lot of work on other areas including health and employment and there was a wide range of partnership involvement.  Improving the indices of deprivation was the integral benefit of the project, which would need to improve in order to demonstrate success, but these were long-term proposals which would take some years to deliver.  It was suggested that quarterly updates would be made available to members and there was a request that CBH be given the opportunity to make a more detailed presentation to members in the Autumn.   

The following responses were given to member questions:

·         As yet there had been no further detail regarding eligibility in relation to the proposed increase to the borrowing cap of local authorities to allow for increased development of new housing.  The expectation was that this would be included in the impending green paper on social housing, which was expected to be published in Spring 2018.  However, given the property prices and the cost of land in Cheltenham it was assumed likely that CBC would indeed be eligible.  CBH had attended a meeting with Homes England at which it had made clear its interest to explore the viability and CBH were maintaining a watching brief on this. 

·         Resources were not an issue for the project at this stage, with CBH having appointed a Project Manager.  However, more resources would certainly be required after July 2018, but CBH did not anticipate that this would be a problem as they would simply up-scale resources; the cost of which would be included within the cost of a particular scheme, which incidentally, would also cover the cost of consultants, architects, etc. 

·           A consultant had recently commented that they had not previously encountered customer satisfaction at the level that CBH Repairs was achieving and this, in part, had lead CBH to increase the level of work done in-house (including kitchen and bathroom replacements which were previously undertaken by a contractor).  CBH had recently visited Nottingham City Council, an ALMO which had an in-house development arm and this was something to which they were giving consideration and a likely timescale for a decision on this would be 12 to 18 months.  It was noted that establishing links with Gloucestershire College and providing local employment opportunities would arise from the Masterplan project.

·         Consideration was being given to all tenure types and it could be that some schemes would need to include freehold properties in order to ensure the overall viability of the scheme.   

A member stressed the importance of capturing some measure of where people in an area of deprivation achieve better education and work outcomes as a direct result of any regeneration works, but where these people then subsequently go on to leave the area, resulting in levels of deprivation seemingly remaining unchanged.  The Chief Executive commented that the dilemma that had been described was a dilemma that faced all regeneration projects.  Evidence of this would need to be captured and this would only be possible by having undertaken sufficient research and data gathering at the outset.  Diversification of housing tenure and type would play a role in addressing this also, and it was important to CBH that regeneration of any given area was real and sustainable, resulting in a positive human outcome, as well as other socio-economic benefits.  

The Chairman thanked the Chief Executive and Executive Director for their attendance and on behalf of the committee accepted the offer of a detailed presentation later in the year.