Purpose

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member
for Housing Operations outlining the match funding proposal for the
Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) Round 3 initiative.

Decision

(i) 
To approve the match funding element required of £625,000
through the additional borrowing of £625,000 through the
Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Capital Programme.
(ii) 
To approve expenditure of the full budget for the LAHF scheme.
(iii) 
To delegate to the Director of Housing after consultation with and
the Executive Director of Enabling Services, Executive Director of
Growth and Prosperity, the Director of Legal and Governance and the
Cabinet Member for Housing, to agree and approve the detail of the
additional property investment in line with the details set out in
this paper.

Reasons for the decision

In December 2024, the Homelessness Team, on
behalf of the Council, submitted an EOI for LAHF R3 and have been
successful in securing £500k of partial capital funding to
deliver 3 temporary accommodation homes for homeless households,
and 1 home for a resettlement family.
 
Approval of the match funding element outlined
in this proposal will ensure the Council can meet the requirement
to be able to deliver the additional units of temporary
accommodation and a resettlement property. These additional
properties will help to reduce the Council’s usage of
emergency accommodation which is a more expensive option.
 
These additional properties will help to
reduce local pressures and use of expensive unsuitable
accommodation, by providing better quality temporary accommodation
to those owed homelessness duties. It will also help us to reduce
the Council’s spend on emergency accommodation costs.

Alternative options considered

Section 106
Once the Council was successful in securing
grant funding from the MHCLG, Officers undertook work to explore
other match funding options, including the use of Section 106
monies.
 
In summary, Section 106 contributions which
have been paid to the Council need to be put towards
“affordable housing which is allocated to households from the
housing register”, which is not encompassed within the
requirements of the LAHF.
 
After various discussions, and advice from
Legal Services, it was deemed that it is not possible to apply
Section 106 funds held for affordable housing purposes, unless
there is some reference to provision of affordable housing.
Therefore, this option was not pursued any further, as it was not
viable.
 
Do Nothing
If we do nothing, then our spend on emergency
accommodation will continue to increase and could exceed that of
previous years. We would also have to give the funding back to
MHCLG.