Cabinet, at its meeting on 09 September 2020, delegated authority to:

1. The Director of Housing*, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Affordable Housing; the Head of Financial Services/Section 151 Officer; and the Council’s Monitoring Officer, to enter into agreements for the purchase of land, and any other necessary agreements or contracts and/or spend within the identified budget, for the provision of additional affordable housing; and

2. The Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Members for Finance and Asset Management, and Affordable Housing, to approve any property or development purchases over £500,000 for affordable housing, within this project approval and budget envelope.

*This delegation is now within the remit of the Executive Director (Communities and People).

Council considered the report of the Head of Housing Services seeking project approval, delegations, and budget, to enable spending from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), on land purchases, build contracts and other necessary agreements and associated development costs for the purpose of delivering affordable housing.

The Cabinet Member for Affordable Housing, Cllr Rowley, introduced the report, proposed the recommendations and answered questions. The recommendations were agreed on being seconded and put to the vote.

The Monitoring Officer advised and Cllr Henwood then confirmed that he would not take part in the vote because one of the sites listed in the report was adjacent to his property and so the outcome of the vote may affect an area close to his property which was a disclosable pecuniary interest. It was not possible for the Monitoring Officer to check the location of the site relative to the property more precisely at that late stage and upon advice Cllr Henwood abstained in the vote.

Council resolved to:

1.    approve a revision to the HRA capital budget in 2020/21 of £31.647m, in order for the schemes listed in this report (paras 11 to 40) to be added into the capital programme funded predominantly from additional borrowing; and

2.    approve a revision to the HRA base (revenue) budget from 2021/22 on, for £235k to be added, for the creation of the Affordable Supply Programme and Enabling Team to manage and co-ordinate the various work streams to deliver the programmes.