Issue - meetings

To recommend to the Council the way in which the Community Housing Fund of £976,387, which has been allocated to this Council by the Department of Communities and Local Government, should be spent.

RESOLVED:

(a)   That the Council approve the spending of the Community Grant Fund allocation of £976,387 as set out in Section 3 of Report Item 4 to the Cabinet; and

(b)   That the Executive Head of Housing and Planning be authorised to take all such decisions and actions necessary to implement this decision.

The Cabinet was advised that the Council had secured a second tranche of government funding under the Community Housing Fund, in total amounting to £976,387.  This was in recognition of the high proportion of second homes in the District and also that the Council had demonstrated that it had developed proposals to implement such a scheme.

It was proposed to fund a full time, 2 year temporary post, to promote and develop community housing fund projects to parish and town councils and other community groups with an interest in community led housing.  In addition, grants and loans would be available for set up costs, professional fees etc; and to provide seed corn funding for community led housing projects.  An application process would need to be developed, together with assessment criteria and funding tiers.  This process would assist bids to be made for further government funding, paid directly to the community based project, following the first year in which funding was directed through local authorities.

This Council would need to work closely with the National Park Authority to ensure that all communities across the District that wished to benefit from this scheme could do so.

Members welcomed an initiative that could secure low cost housing for local people, in perpetuity, in settlements in the District.

RESOLVED:

(a)   That the Council approve the spending of the Community Grant Fund allocation of £976,387 as set out in Section 3 of Report Item 4 to the Cabinet; and

(b)   That the Executive Head of Housing and Planning be authorised to take all such decisions and actions necessary to implement this decision.