Purpose

Report seeking approval to enter into new
Grant Funding Agreements and Nominations agreements with South
Liverpool Homes for the purpose of delivering an additional six
homes for homeless households.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the
Corporate Director has decided to:
1)   
Enter into a Grant Addendum between the
Council and Torus to reduce the allocation of LAHF Round 1 grant
from £655,458 to £384,000 and to reduce the number of
properties to be delivered from eight to six;
2)   
Enter into a Grant Addendum between the
Council and SLH providing the additional allocation of
£260,000 from the LAHF Round 2 grant for the purpose of
providing two properties to accommodate homeless households;
3)   
Enter into a Nominations Agreement between the Council and SLH for
the purpose of nominating individuals and households considered as
eligible cohort to the properties made available using additional
funding from LAHF Round 2; and
4)   
Enter into a Grant Addendum between the
Council and SLH providing the additional allocation of
£367,360 from the LAHF Round 3 grant for the purpose of
providing four properties to accommodate homeless households.
 

Alternative options considered

1.1          
The Council could deliver the project themselves, however, as we
are a non-stockholding local authority, we do not have the
necessary arrangements in place to be able to manage the properties
following completion, for example, tenancies, maintenance
programmes.
1.2          
The decision not to make the proposed additional grant funding
allocations for LAHF Round 2 and Round 3 was considered but
discounted as this would result in the loss of units of
accommodation being made available to assist homeless households
with their housing needs and would also place further financial
burden on the Council who would be forced to fund alternative
solutions. It would risk clawback of grant from MHCLG due to
failure to spend the full allocation, which may also impact future
allocations of LAHF grant to the Council.   
1.3          
Equally the decision to reduce the LAHF Round 1 grant funding
allocation is undertaken to ensure full compliance with the MHCLG
grant conditions.