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).

To enter into an exchange of contracts to acquire 2 properties: Northfield Hostel and Land at Lanham Way.  This requires a 5 % deposit payment for each site to be paid by Oxford City Council to Oxfordshire County Council (to be placed in a holding account with the purchaser’s lawyers). Completion of the contracts is subject to the receipt of satisfactory planning permission for each site. The deposit is returnable in the event completion does not occur. Assuming completion occurs the remainder of the purchase prices becomes payable. Contract purchase prices are £1,489,000 (Northfield Hostel) and £935,000 (Lanham Way).

The funding allowed the City Council to appoint some master planning consultants to develop a spatial framework, public realm strategy, design code and viability costings that will provide the evidence base to support a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

To appointment a multi-disciplinary team of consultants to provide the evidence base for the West End Spatial Framework, which would be used by the City Council to produce a Supplementary Planning Document. The amount secured for the project was £150,000 which comes from a combination of Planning Policy and CIL with the remaining £50,000 from the Regeneration Team. This was set out in the report to Cabinet. 

Reuse by local charities, schools and non-profit organisations will ensure ongoing public benefit from Broad Meadow. Expressions of interest have been assessed against several criteria (minimising waste, retaining as much accessibility as possible, capacity to receive, secure and maintain items) and third party organisations have committed to a code of conduct and a disclaimer - all to maximise the social and environmental impact of the scheme and achieve value for money for the Council.

To donate elements of “Broad Meadow” to six local charities and organisations at the end of the temporary Broad Street scheme, which is anticipated to be 11^th October 2021. (More information and public consultation on Broad Meadow at https://consultation.oxford.gov.uk/regeneration-economy/broad-street-summer-2021.) An appropriate process has been undertaken to ensure all the organisations are legitimate charities and community organisations and to ensure that they will use the donated infrastructure appropriately for ongoing public benefit.

The items which are being donated are: moveable furniture, planters, plants, wooden planks, trees lawn turf and wildflower turf. Items which are being retained by the Council are: tree planters and soil, 8 small planters, 2 large planters for use as vehicle protection.

The organisations which are receiving infrastructure are: Oxford Urban Wildlife Group, St Ebbe’s Primary School, Blackbird Leys Adventure Playground, Cowley Children’s Allotment, Marston Community Gardening, St Mary Magdalen Church.

The cumulative value of donated assets is estimated to be £6,500.

The Head of Financial Services (Section 151 Officer) has confirmed that the disposal process is appropriate.

To deliver the Meanwhile in Oxfordshire…Project in 2021/22.

After an OJEU compliant procurement process, the decision was taken to appoint Makespace to deliver Operator services for the Meanwhile in Oxfordshire Project for a total contract value of £1,692,488 (value exempt)

Oxford City Council has been allocated £1.875m to deliver a county-wide scheme to tackle the predicted significant increase in vacant units in Oxford (the city and its other neighbourhood centres) and Oxfordshire’s market towns.

The ‘Meanwhile in Oxfordshire…’ project is to be funded through the “Getting Building Fund” as part of a County-wide £8.4m programme, managed by OxLEP to accelerate the UK’s economic revival through the delivery of capital projects by early 2022.

To authorise the transfer by purchase by Oxford City Council of the extended and refurbished 4 bedroom property delivered through the OCHDL Extensions programme. Contributing to the Council’s overall Affordable Housing provision.

To authorise the purchase by way of transfer the completed property at 51 Weirs Lane, resulting from the Oxford City Housing Development Ltd Extensions Programme.

Authority was granted for the HRA to purchase the property for £246,000 in total.

Agreement to provide grant funding to support this development.

To enter into a funding agreement to provide grant for the provision of affordable housing under the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal to Catalyst Housing Ltd with respect to Littlemore Park.

To seek approval for a change in the Council’s appointments to the Board of Directors for both ODSL and ODSTL

Appointment of Stephen Gabriel to the boards of Oxford Direct Services Limited (ODSL) and Oxford Direct Services Trading Limited (ODSTL)