Agenda item

Report of Chief Executive.

Lead cabinet member:  Councillor Alan Shuttleworth.

(1) Focus of first phase housing delivery via the JHIP approved.

(2) All and any future decisions to agree scheme lending parameters for loans to EHICL, including decisions about the types of property for which any loan might be made and terms of any such loan, delegated to chief executive in consultation with chief finance officer (and monitoring officer, where appropriate), and in consultation with lead cabinet members for community and finance.

(3) Any future purported delegation to officers to negotiate and/or agree terms and/or confer any benefit (financial or otherwise) on any company or partnership in which the council has an interest shall be a delegation to the chief executive in consultation with the chief finance officer (and monitoring officer, where appropriate), and in consultation with relevant lead cabinet members.

(4) Council will build governance audits (para 5.8 of report) into its annual work programme.

22.1 Cabinet considered the report of the chief executive updating members on progress with the establishment of the joint housing partnership (JHIP) with Lewes District Council (LDC) further to the cabinet’s decisions taken on 22 March 2017 and setting out plans for first phase delivery; providing an update on the progress of Eastbourne Housing Investment Company (EHICL) activities; and seeking approval to officer delegations for the purpose of loans and associated matters.

22.2 The new JHIP was formally incorporated on 1 July 2017.  It had unrestricted objectives but its primary purpose was to act as the asset holding vehicle for affordable housing properties that could not, for financial accounting or other reasons, be held in Eastbourne BC and Lewes DC’s respective housing revenue accounts ( HRA’s).  Such properties might be acquired as a consequence of Eastbourne BC’s new development programme via Eastbourne Housing Investment Company Limited  (EHICL) or might be direct acquisitions into the JHIP.  Cabinet also approved an associated recommendation to allocate up to £30m in the council’s capital programme to progress the next  phase of delivery for EHICL (£20m) and first phase delivery for JHIP (£10m), in both cases for the delivery of new mixed tenure homes and associated activities.

22.3 Details of EHICLs current programme, comprising the delivery of 84 residential units at various sites at a total cost of £8.204m, were given in the report.  It was proposed to bring forward a £5m affordable homes programme of 37 street/block acquisitions through the JHIP in addition to the EHICL street property acquisition programme.

22.4 Through future phase delivery, the JHIP would also act as the asset holding vehicle for affordable housing properties developed through the EHICL and its Lewes counterpart, Lewes Housing Investment Company Limited (LHICL) commercially focused development programmes.  As an example, for larger ‘pipeline’ EHICL schemes, such as Bedfordwell Road, the required affordable housing would be transferred on completion to the JHIP as there was insufficient headroom within the HRA to enable direct incorporation and the council would otherwise lose control over delivery and letting of these homes.  The earliest expected transfers to the JHIP would take place in 2018.  In the meantime, there was continued pressure on the council to meet housing need in very challenging times.  The council was spending on average £40 a night on procuring the rental of emergency accommodation in Eastbourne for those whom the council had a duty to assist with housing. 

22.5 Resolved (key decision): (1) That the focus of first phase housing delivery via the joint housing investment partnership be approved.

(2) That all and any future decisions to agree scheme lending parameters for loans to Eastbourne Homes Investment Company Limited, including decisions about the types of property for which any loan might be made and the terms of any such loan, shall be delegated to the council’s chief executive in consultation with the council’s chief finance officer (and monitoring officer, where appropriate), and in consultation with the lead cabinet members for community and finance.

(3) That any future purported delegation to officers to negotiate and/or agree terms and/or confer any benefit (financial or otherwise) on any company or partnership in which the council has an interest shall be a delegation to the council’s chief executive in consultation with the council’s chief finance officer (and monitoring officer, where appropriate), and in consultation with the relevant lead cabinet members.

(4) That the council will build governance audits as described in para 5.8 of the report into its annual work programme.