Purpose

On 11th April 2023 a decision was made to accept £3.04m of government Local Authority Housing Fund grant to obtain and refurbish property in order to provide sustainable housing for those unable to secure their own accommodation and are here under specific schemes for people from Ukraine and Afghanistan. and to fully approve an initial capital budget of £250k funded by this grant to initiate technical design work. This update extends the scope of that decision to also include the ability of the Council or Aequus (the Council’s wholly owned development company) to make offers for suitable open market house purchases to support the LAHF programme. This decision does not authorise contract exchange which will subject to further decision making.

Decision

To authorise the Council or Aequus (the Council’s wholly owned development company) to make offers for suitable open market house purchases to support the LAHF programme.

Alternative options considered

The scheme aims to provide 22 high quality and well managed homes with the potential to house up to 29 households. If we do nothing we will lose this opportunity.