Agenda item

In order to increase the amount of social and affordable housing to meet housing needs in the district, the Affordable Housing TaFF proposed the creation of a Task Force comprising a small team of officers employed to focus on delivering the ambition in the Council Plan.

A statement from Mr Smith of Cranbrook was read out on his behalf in relation to this item.  In the statement, Mr Smith outlined that in excess of 5000 “family units” were registered at Devon Home Choice awaiting housing provision.  Since April 2017, no purchase, or build of, social housing had been undertaken by the Council, with no plans to do so for 2021/22.  The company East Devon Homes had been unfit for purpose in his opinion; and that Cabinet had been slow to grasp the gravity of the housing shortage, He gave an example of Cranbrook, built to deliver housing development obligations for the District, but still leaving a localised need.  He asked Cabinet to act with urgency to address the housing situation, and that any Task Force put in place was subject to performance monitoring.

In response to the statement, the Chair gave this thanks for the contribution made.  He stressed the number one priority for the Council was to address the housing crisis.  The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning disputed some of the comments made in the statement, and reminded the Cabinet that whilst homes had not been developed by the Council, our acquisitions and housing association developments have delivered 200 - 300 new affordable homes per year.

The Strategic Lead for Housing, Health and Environment presented his report, containing the recommendations from the Affordable Housing Task and Finish Forum.  The report recommended the creation of a Task Force of officers employed to focus on delivery of social and affordable housing.  Learning from the TaFF’s investigations and our Housing Company experience found that we need to create officer capacity with the right skills, a source of funding, a risk appetite, and a single purpose team to achieve the ambition of increasing the output of social and affordable housing.  He advised the Cabinet that patience was required to deliver this proposed intervention, particularly in a competitive housing market, but the proposal offered an exciting and realistic delivery model.

Debate included:

·         Imperative to act swiftly with a model that would succeed;

·         Shortage of rental properties was acute;

·         Resourcing the proposed task force team was key, and best practice from other authorities should be sought to help develop the job descriptions;

·         Review the financial incentive to downsize, balanced with the level of smaller homes available; this would be referred to the Housing Review Board to consider;

·         Exciting opportunity to invest half a million, obtained by savings through budget underspend, to make a significant difference to the District in driving forward multiple delivery models of affordable housing;

·         The level of second homes made a sizeable impact on the housing crisis, and detailed information on the number of those, at ward level, would be helpful to establish pinch points.  The issue of second homes should be referred onto the Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning.

The Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Homes and Communities, in response to a question, informed the Cabinet about her work in bringing forward lobbying with the support of local authorities in the South West, specifically on the issue of retaining a higher percentage of right to buy sales (RTB), and expressed concern about homes being decarbonised through significant investment being lost to RTB.

Recommendation to Council:

That Council approves the appointment of a Housing Task Force with the staffing resource outlined in the report to deliver more social and affordable housing with a budget of £250,000 per annum for two years.

Reason:

To deliver on the ambitions contained in the Council Plan and the recommendations coming through the work of the Affordable Housing Task and Finish Forum to produce more social/affordable housing.