Issue - meetings

Recommended:           That Council use £3.56m from the Housing Revenue Account Investment Fund to demolish the existing accommodation and rebuild the new hostel.  Any material changes will be reported to full Council through the capital monitoring process.

Reason:              To release funding from the HRA Investment Fund to finance the required new hostel accommodation.

Members considered a report which outlined the options for the replacement of the existing temporary homeless hostel at Ordnance Lane, York.

Officers confirmed that the final part of the Council’s homeless accommodation improvement strategy had been re-provision of this homeless hostel with solutions having been pursued since 2008. Whilst a range of options outlined in detail in the report had been considered, the use of modular off site construction for the re-provision of the current facility provided the best timely solution and value for money.

Consideration was given to the following options:

Option one – demolition of the existing Ordnance Lane hostel to be replaced with a new modular build hostel, with the remainder of the site to be used for new council housing. This could include a proportion of market sale should any new housing development exceed 20 dwellings.

Option two – continue to search for alternative sites on which to build a replacement hostel, with the Ordnance Lane site to be allocated for an alternative use.

Members confirmed the Council’s statutory and moral duty to provide accommodation that was fit for purpose and it was

Recommended:           That Council use £3.56m from the Housing Revenue Account Investment Fund to demolish the existing accommodation and rebuild the new hostel.  Any material changes will be reported to full Council through the capital monitoring process. ^1.

Reason:              To release funding from the HRA Investment Fund to finance the required new hostel accommodation.