Agenda item

a)    Presentation on the Department for Communities and Local Government ‘review of the role of local authorities in housing supply’ from Cllr Keith House and Natalie Elphicke, independent review leads

b)    Housing update paper, including background paper on international experience and best practice.

a)    Presentation on the ‘review of the role of local authorities in housing supply’ commissioned by DCLG and HMT from Cllr Keith House and Natalie Elphicke, co-chairs of the review.

Cllr House advised that there was a clear consensus amongst the main parties that there was a necessity to build affordable homes and that Councils could do more to access private finance. There were four things that he felt were important:

1)    Where does the local authorities’ responsibility in housing cease?

2)    Do you have the skills base to make this work?

3)    Building on smaller sites was also as necessary as utilising larger sites for development.

4)    Do local authorities have access to private finance? Were authorites transparent in this way?

Natalie Elphicke highlighted that local authorities should be trusted with house building and there was an awareness and zest for building more homes. She advised that the joint report would be published in December 2014 and stated that it would be courageous and challenging. In particular, the report would listen to local authorities and talk to developers.

            Board members raised the following points in the discussion that    followed:

·         Planning is not the problem and there is a need to improve access to finance. The mortgage market also needs to change and become more flexible.

·         Government needs to trust local authorities so that they can start building houses again. Councils would also like to see the Housing Borrowing Cap lifted to support them to build more homes.

·         Members raised the importance of small sites in non-metropolitan areas and the importance of being able to secure affordable housing on those sites. CLG proposals to exempt small sites from affordable housing requirements is unhelpful in this regard.

Cllr Hodge thanked Cllr House and Ms Elphicke for their presentation.

Decision:

Members noted and welcomed the presentation and would view the final report with interest.

b)    Housing work programme: update

The paper provided an update on progress against the housing programme area and included a background paper on international experience and best practice.

Decision:

Members noted progress against the housing programme area and agreed the international case study publication attached at Annex A.