Purpose

The report sought approval to purchase 11 homes through a section106 agreement from Knights Lodge Properties on the above site. The acquisition of 7 of these homes had previously been to Cabinet but a fresh agreement had been reached to acquire a further 4 homes (previously stated to be ‘first homes’). For reasons identified in the report, these homes could not be sold and so the Council negotiated a deal to buy all 11 homes in the section 106b agreement.

Decision

Cabinet agreed:

That the Council proceeds with the acquisition of the 11 homes on the Fairlawn, Northwood Road site, using the additional capital budget, approved by council at its meeting on 12 October 2023;

That the letting of these homes be in accordance with the council’s Allocations Policy, at an affordable rent as set out in the council’s Tenancy Strategy with a local lettings plan in place.

Reasons for the decision

The homes enable the Council to add good quality homes, being delivered by a local SME developer, to its housing stock. It enables households to be housed from both the housing register and temporary accommodation, where households in the latter tenure are in a position to secure a long-term tenancy.

Alternative options considered

The Council could have chosen not to renegotiate with the developer on the original agreement. However, the Council is trying to be commercially minded in an agile marketplace and, through its prominent roles as a contributor to Kentwide forums and roundtables, understands the pressures on developers of market forces. Therefore, it was happy to look at the acquisition in its totality having acquired an additional four homes.