Agenda item

To receive an update on the progress of the Housing Strategy and HRA property development and acquisition.

The Panel received an update on the Housing Strategy / property acquisition.  The presentation has been attached to these minutes as an Appendix.

The Service Manager Housing Strategy and Development reported the following:

Penman House, a development in Totton had been completed in January 2024.  This provided 12 one and two bedroom flats and had been built to the proposed Future Homes Standard.  The scheme had cost £3.4m and a grant of £684,000 from Homes England had been awarded.  The homes would be let at affordable rent.  The building was all electric, had 6 inches of insulation, triple glazed windows, air source heat pumps, photovoltaics and purrmetric monitoring.  Seven of the 12 flats would be monitored in terms of temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide, following the agreement of the tenants.  Feedback would be obtained each quarter.  The purpose was to ensure that there was no condensation or mould, and if it did occur, the right support would be given.

Burgate homes in Fordingbridge was a Metis Homes development.  The purchase of 16 out of 17 homes had been completed and these homes would be used for rent or shared ownership.  14 had been purchased through the Section 106 agreement with a further 3 funded through Homes England.  The shared ownership properties had proved highly sought after and five had been sold on a first come first served basis.  Marketing had just commenced for the last shared ownership flat.

Local Authority Housing Fund Round 1: Central Government funding of £1.8 m had been received by the District Council to provide 12 resettlement homes, 10 were for Ukrainian families and 2 for Afghan families.  12 homes had been purchased of which 5 were transferred from the Council’s buy back scheme.  The District Council would keep these homes when the families moved on.

The following housing developments were under construction:

·         Moore Close, New Milton: This was to provide 16 affordable houses of which 11 would be for social rent and 5 for shared ownership.  Homes England had awarded a grant of £1.5 towards the cost of the scheme which would meet the proposed Future Homes Standard.  Completion was anticipated in January 2025.

·         Hythe Medical Centre, Hythe: The site had been cleared in 2023 ready for the construction of 22 new homes.  The main contract was due to be tendered and a bid would be submitted to Homes England for a grant.  It was expected that work would commence on site in May / June 2024.

·         Salisbury Road, Totton: This scheme would provide 20 one or two bedroom flats.  The design was being concluded with the planning department and it was expected that the scheme would be out to tender the construction in early April.  The scheme would meet the proposed Future Homes Standard.

·         Parsonage Barn Lane refurbishment: There had been a delay to this scheme.  It would be tendered on the open market in order to get best value.

·         A Portfolio Holder decision had been made for a site in the District to purchase 23 homes for rent.  This was subject to contract and was currently commercially sensitive.

·         There were also two new section 106 opportunities for two sites.  One offer had been accepted in a village for a small site and another was under negotiation for a larger site elsewhere in the District. 

In additional to the housing developments, the housing strategy team had been working on St Georges Hall in Calshot which was a refurbishment project, to make internal reconfiguration improvements as part of the first phase.  Phase 2 proposed to improve and create additional recreational amenities.  It was recognised that the community in Calshot was isolated and therefore it was important to have an improved community facility.  Funding had been secured from the Rural England prosperity fund as well as left over covid funds.  This project would commence in May 2024.

The Panel received details of recent providers and developer led affordable housing in the District to provide an additional 149 homes.  This included extra care accommodation and first homes.

Finally, the Panel noted the affordable housing development programme, as at 20 March 2024.  The programme until 2025/26 proposed to deliver 453 additional council owned affordable homes but that officers would continue to look for further opportunities.  As part of this, 356 homes had either been completed or certain of being completed and 97 were in a ‘firm’ pipeline to be delivered.  197 future opportunities had been identified, however there was less certainly over the delivery of these.

Members recognised that the target to provide an additional 600 affordable homes by 2025/26 was ambitious, but that the Council was still in a strong position to date in striving towards this.

It was questioned whether officers had considered garage sites as potential development opportunities for housing.  The Ladycross scheme in Hythe had replaced 37 garages with 6 houses, therefore showing the scale of land that is required when replacing garaging with housing.  A contract was due to be let for consultants to help with the review of future garage sites across the district.  They had received a lack of investment over the years.  A position statement would be prepared for each site, to include a stock condition survey and the cost of improvements / repairs to the garages.

A member of the Panel spoke about the recent opening of Penman House and that it was a positive development for the Council.  However, it had received some negative comments on social media, which was in part due to the design and appearance of the building.  It was questioned whether anything could be done in response to this to highlight the positive elements of the scheme and its credentials.  The Service Manager Housing Strategy and Development reported that following a conversation with the communication team, it was felt that it would be best for the Council not to respond to them.  The Interim Executive Head of Housing and Community Safety confirmed that members would be provided with briefing information for any future schemes which would set out the key information which would enable members to respond to any residents or social media posts, should they wish to.  It was also noted that further information would be made available on the monitoring of the homes at Penman House in due course.

It was questioned whether officers were continuing to identify and bring back empty homes into use.  It was confirmed that since the Empty Homes Strategy had been published, 54 homes had been brought back into use.  It was noted that a decision had recently been made to push forward on the sale of an empty property and that the costs incurred by the Council would be recovered.  Assurance was given that all reports made to the Council were being followed up.