Issue - meetings

The Chair of the Housing & Safer Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee to present the committee’s final report on their review of the Provision of Affordable Homes on New Developments, seeking approval of the review’s recommendations to Executive.

Resolved:  That the Chief Operating Officer be recommended to approve the recommendations of the review, as set out in paragraph 6 of the covering report

Reason:     To conclude the scrutiny review in line with the council’s scrutiny procedures and protocols.

Cllrs Fenton and Pavlovic, as Chair and Vice Chair of the Housing & Safer Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee, presented the committee’s final report on their review of the Provision of Affordable Homes on New Developments. 

The report sought approval of the review’s recommendations to Executive, as set out in paragraph 6 of the covering report and reproduced below:

Recommendation 1: When the First Homes initiative comes to be implemented in York, 75% of homes delivered through developer contributions as part of planning obligations agreed under section 106 should be for social rent.

Recommendation 2: For future iterations of the CYC Housing Delivery Programme, CYC actively considers sale to - or joint working with – RPs for potential housing development sites.

Recommendation 3: For future iterations of the CYC Housing Delivery Programme, officers consider how the programme can be structured and financed in a way that would deliver an increased proportion of affordable homes.

Recommendation 4: Officers review what steps could be taken to make it more likely that open space can be managed by CYC, particularly on CYC Housing Delivery Programme sites.

Recommendation 5: Officers consider improvements that can be made to the section 106 legal agreement template and steps that could be taken to reduce the risk of post-planning delays.

Recommendation 6: Officers consider how they might be able to more positively respond to approaches from developers and RPs for informal discussions at an early stage, prior to a scheme proposal being submitted.

The Executive Member for Housing & Safer Neighbourhoods commented on the review, confirming that she had been engaged in the process and was happy to approve the recommendations.

Resolved:  That the Chief Operating Officer be recommended to approve the recommendations of the review, as set out in paragraph 6 of the covering report.

Reason:     To conclude the scrutiny review in line with the council’s scrutiny procedures and protocols.