Decision details

The Cabinet Member for Housing presented report CH/178 of the Head of Crawley Homes which sought approval to acquire, by way of a Conditional Purchase Agreement, the residential scheme that was to be built on the College Car Park site for the main purpose of Council-owned affordable housing.

Having explored other options to secure the scheme for affordable housing, the only remaining option was for the Council to consider acquiring the whole scheme. In the first instance it was intended to be owned and managed by Crawley Homes, utilising 30% funding from RTB 1-4-1 Receipts and 70% funding from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), while also considering other tenure options, if deemed suitable.

The Cabinet noted the Overview and Scrutiny Commission’s comments of support for the proposal, from its meeting on 27 November 2017.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet requests that Full Council approves

1)            the allocation of funds from the Housing Revenue Account and Right-to Buy 1-4-1 Reserves as detailed in section 7 for the acquisition of the residential scheme on the College Car Park site for the main purpose of Council-owned affordable housing, but with the flexibility to explore other tenure options as detailed in section 5.1 of the report.

2)            the delegated authority to the Head of Crawley Homes, the Head of Finance, Revenues & Benefits and the Head of Legal & Democratic Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing, to negotiate and agree the detailed terms of the Conditional Purchase Agreement and acquisition, and to consider the available tenure options as deemed necessary for financial or strategic reasons.

Reasons for the Recommendations

The delivery of new affordable housing remains a key priority for the Council. Given land supply constraints it is vital that the Council is in a position to respond promptly and, where appropriate, also positively to potential windfall opportunities in order to maximise affordable housing delivery.

The Council has an obligation to spend the RTB 1-4-1 Receipts within a prescribed period, and this scheme presents an immediate opportunity to commit a significant proportion of these reserves thereby mitigating the risk of returning these funds back to government with penalty interest.

This report intends to secure a significant windfall of at least 90 residential units, by way of a Conditional Purchase Agreement, primarily for Council-owned affordable housing to enable housing lost through Right-to-Buy to be replenished.

This scheme is otherwise likely to come forward as another Private Rented Scheme (PRS) in the town centre without any affordable housing.