Purpose

The Cabinet will be asked to approve the strategy for the delivery of 47 family homes at social rent across four wholly Council-owned sites, to be held within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and funded through a combination of Greater London Authority grant and HRA investment.

Decision

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Approve the establishment of the Affordable Family Homes Development Programme, to include the garage sites at Hunters Hall Road, Rosslyn Avenue and Chelmer Crescent (previously within the Innovative Sites Programme Workstream 2) together with the Dagenham Trades Hall / Charlotte Road garage site;

(ii)  Approve the allocation of funds from the HRA capital budget to meet the pre-development costs for the Programme, as set out in Appendix 4 to the report;

(iii)  Delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Inclusive Growth and Place, in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, to procure a construction contractor through an appropriate public procurement framework to design and construct the social rent housing developments across all four sites;

(iv)  Delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Inclusive Growth and Place, in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, to appropriate all sites identified within the programme for planning purposes and to transfer Dagenham Trades Hall from the General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account;

(v)  Note the potential for future expansion of the Programme, subject to further Cabinet approval for each additional site identified in due course;

(vi)  Authorise the Director of Law and Governance to execute all necessary legal agreements, contracts and documentation on behalf of the Council to give effect to these recommendations; and

(vii)  Delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Inclusive Growth and Place, in consultation with the Strategic Director of Resources, to approve the budget for further expenditure required to deliver the programme within the HRA, noting that the project was viable and delivered a positive Net Present Value to the Council subject to the receipt of GLA grant funding.