Agenda item

To receive announcements from the Mayor, the Leader of the Council, members of the Cabinet and the Chief Executive.

The Mayor made the following announcements:

·         Advised a full list of his activities as Mayor is available and asked people to email him should they like a copy.

·         Civic Dinner was a great success and managed to raise £1,490. for the Mayors Charity (Mental Health)

·         The Mayor took this opportunity to thanks all that supported the event.

The Leader of the Council:

·         Acknowledge the great support shown by William Benson in support of the Ukraine Refugee actions.

·         TWBC role is focused on reviewing accommodation being offered, have set up a website in multiple languages

·         KCC have been focused on DBS checks, education and health matters

·         William has continued to supply support in other areas.

·         2 x Borough Councillors are a providing housing and are experiencing first-hand the issues faced such as opening bank accounts etc.

Portfolio Holder for Environment, Culture and Leisure announced

·         Expressed her thanks to all of those who helped and support in the completion go the Amelia Scott

·         The preview opening was well attended and received positive feedback.

Portfolio Holder for Communities and Wellbeing

·         At the last Full Council meeting in February I was asked how many social housing units have been delivered over the last five years. I now have the figures so I would like to take this opportunity to confirm that 634 such dwellings have been provided.

·         There is a very good reason as to why the numbers of social rented houses to be built are low. 

·         This all relates to the fact that the existing planning policies for affordable housing are too old. 

·         There are different tenures of affordable housing: affordable rent, social rent, and intermediate forms of housing, such as shared ownership.

·         Most new affordable housing – including social rented housing – is delivered through planning policy requiring that a certain proportion of houses on new major residential developments are provided as such. 

·         The current planning policy in relation to affordable housing dates from 2010 – it is long in the tooth.  There is no requirement in this policy, or in associated Supplementary Planning Documentation, for a particular mix of affordable housing.  There is no requirement or ability for Officers to insist on social rented housing. 

·         The affordable housing policy in the new Local Plan will address this.  It requires that for every 100 houses to be built on a greenfield site that 24 will be for social rent, 16 will be for intermediate forms of affordable housing such as shared ownership, and 60 will be for market sale. 

·         This will provide a significant boost to the amount of affordable housing. 

·         Ahead of the new Local Plan being adopted Officers have in recent years been able to exert more leverage, when negotiating on planning applications, to increase the amount of social rented housing in schemes.  And as these start to be built out, so the delivery of social rented houses will increase in the short term. 

·         This all demonstrates why it is so important that we have a new Local Plan in place