Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director of Property and Housing attached.

Decision made (Unanimously):

1.    Cabinet approves the development for 15 dwellings and proposed scheme mix for the site for the purposes of providing affordable housing.

2.    Cabinet approves to enhance the scheme to the Passivhaus standard.

3.    Cabinet agrees in principle to commit Section 106 and other funding to finance the scheme and recommends to Council that Section 106 and other funding should be committed to take this scheme forward.

4.    That Cabinet approves the proposal to be developed into a planning application.

The Cabinet Member (Finance, Property and Assets), Councillor Matthew Tomlinson, presented a report of the Assistant Director of Property and Housing that updated on the development appraisal for the former McKenzie Arms site, off Station Road in Bamber Bridge, with a view to developing the site for housing. The Business Case for the site was confidentially appended to the report.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Paul Foster commented that an audit had been undertaken by Lancashire County Council on the approval process for the purchase, the results of which would be published in the public domain in the New Year.

The Cabinet Member explained that a development appraisal had been completed which recommended redevelopment of the site to provide 15 dwellings for affordable housing. The development would comprise of 3, three bedroom Townhouses, 9, one bedroom apartments and 3, two bedroom apartments. There is a healthy demand for all three types of properties.

The properties have been designed to high environmental and energy efficiency standards and there is potential to develop an exemplar Passivhaus scheme design. Development of the scheme would also be dependent on obtaining planning permission.

There were a number of reasons for the funding gap of £704,819, for the total costs of the scheme against its value, that included a high quality design and meeting national guidance on space standards (circa 30% bigger than what is typically provided by the market), rental values are low and subsequently the payback period for the scheme is circa 37 years. This gap would have to be met by the Council.

Members queried if it was better to spend the £700k to buy additional family homes, so that the scheme could benefit more people. The Council could still build homes to a higher standard than what is currently available on the market. The Cabinet Member explained that the Council were committed to providing a high quality build for its residents that would stay in Council ownership. The Leader of the Council added, that this was the first of many schemes aimed at providing affordable homes to residents across the Borough and included a wide range of different housing schemes.

A request was made to update the Investment Property Strategy to include the Affordable Housing proposals.

Decision made (Unanimously):

1.    Cabinet approves the development for 15 dwellings and proposed scheme mix for the site for the purposes of providing affordable housing.

2.    Cabinet agrees to enhance the scheme to the Passivhaus standard.

3.    Cabinet agrees in principle to commit Section 106 and other funding to finance the scheme and recommends to Council that Section 106 and other funding should be committed to take this scheme forward.

4.    That Cabinet approves the proposal to be developed into a planning application.

Reason(s) for the decisions:

The decision taken will meet the Council’s Corporate Plan priorities in relation to delivering different models to provide quality homes that people can afford to live in whether they choose home ownership or rented accommodation.

The decision shall also enable a much underused Council asset to be utilised to provide much needed affordable housing.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

A number of options were considered as part of the business case, the options appraised were:

            Option 1-Do nothing

            Option 2-Dispose of the Site on the open market

            Option 3-Re-develop the Site for market housing

            Option 4-Re-develop the site for affordable housing.