Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member Housing

The Cabinet Member Housing presented the report, which updated members on the Stronger Working Partnership Programme with Cheltenham Borough Homes (CBH). He highlighted a number of key points, in particular the impact of Covid-19 on services and residents. The council had been recognised both locally and nationally for its pandemic response, and now needed to ensure it was in the best possible position to lead the post Covid-19 recovery as set out in the council’s Recovery Strategy.

As part of this, the council had commissioned an independent strategic review by Campbell Tickell to assess the value and sustainability of delivering housing services under the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) model. The review recommended that the council retain CBH as its housing delivery provider and review opportunities to further strength this partnership to reduce areas of duplication, enable strategic and operational alignment and ensure value for money.

The council had set out ambitious plans for housing in the borough for the benefit of customers, residents and communities. These were set out in the Corporate Strategy and summarised in the Housing Outcomes Framework, and would take significant investment, resource and focus to deliver. The key ambitions were to increase the supply of new homes and affordable housing through a £180m housing investment programme in partnership with CBH, making the council and borough carbon neutral by 2030, and providing well-run and efficient services to residents and communities.

He drew particular attention to sections 3 and 7 of the report, which covered the joint outcomes which CBC and CBH were aiming for, and asked members to endorse the recommendations in the report, which included an update on progress by March 2022.

The Cabinet Member Climate Emergency thanked the Cabinet Member Housing and CBH for the report. It was an important step in the partnership between CBC and CBH, and praised the focus on carbon neutrality and affordable housing. He noted that 320 Swindon Road, the council’s first carbon neutral council houses, were in motion.

The Cabinet Member Safety and Communities thanked Steve Slater, Chief Executive of CBH, for his organisation’s active support of the Big Local.

The Leader thanked the Cabinet Member and officers involved for their work on the topic. She praised the focus on residents’ needs and looked forward to the update report in March.

The Leader moved to the vote, where it was unanimously:

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    The progress made on the recommendations from the Strategic Housing Review Cabinet Report from January 2021 be noted;

2.    A further progress report be received by March 2022.