Purpose

Cabinet is recommended to agree a budget to acquire
208 affordable homes.
 

Content

Cabinet:

(1)         
agreed that, subject to the Corporate
Director of Housing, in consultation the Strategic Director of
Resources and Corporate Director of Governance and Law, agreeing to
the terms upon which the grant funding is provided, the Council may
enter into grant agreements with the Greater London Authority
(£15.4m) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing &
Communities (£2.4m) in respect of funding for affordable
homes for the purpose of providing accommodation to
refugees;

 

(2)         
approved a budget, as set out in
the exempt Appendix A to the report, for the acquisition of:
 

(a)     
Alba and Salix House, Leyton from Pocket Living, consisting of 197
homes – 117 homes to rent to refugee household, along with an
enabling investment of 80 Shared Ownership homes; and

(b)     
11 street properties to rent to refugee households – eight as
temporary accommodation and three as settled accommodation;

 

(3)         
approve £38.6m of borrowing to fund
the longer term net borrowing
requirement of the schemes;

 

(4)         
noted the short
term revenue requirement on the Housing Revenue Account
(HRA) and the impact on HRA Medium Term Financial Strategy
(MTFS).
 

(5)         
agreed that the Council acquire the
freehold of Alba House and Salix House for the sum as set out in
Appendix A and Appendix B to the report,

 

(6)         
approved the acquisition of 11 street properties, 3 to rent to
refugee households and
8 to use for temporary accommodation;
 

(7)         
delegated the final terms of the acquisition of Alba House, Salix
House and the 11 street properties to the Corporate Director of
Housing, in consultation with the
Commercial Director, Property and Delivery, and the Strategic
Director of Resources and Corporate Director of Governance and
Law;
 

(8)         
agreed that the 80 properties in Salix House shall be disposed of
under Shared Ownership leases on the open market;
 

(9)         
delegated to the Corporate Director of
Housing, in consultation the Strategic
Director of Resources and Corporate Director of Governance and
Law authority, the decision to determine the most
appropriate method through which the Council will provide the
accommodation. This will be through the creation of a local
lettings policy (if so advised) and amendments to housing policies
which govern the letting of properties by the Council.  This may include consideration of using fixed-term
tenancies.  This will be as necessary to
ensure that the requirement, as set out in the GLA’s funding
guidance, that these properties remain affordable in perpetuity to
support the Council’s wider housing and homelessness
responsibilities is met.
 
OPTIONS & ALTERNATIVES
CONSIDERED
 
The
following options have been considered to provide new housing for
refugee households:

§ 
‘Do nothing’ – accommodate households
in temporary accommodation, followed by Private Rented Sector
Offers (PRSO) once secured, assuming suitable PRSOs can be secured
given current challenges in the rental market.

§ 
‘Do minimum’ – return
most of the GLA grant and acquire 30 RtB buybacks. Accommodate the remaining households
in temporary accommodation, followed by PRSOs once these have been
secured.

§ 
Preferred option – acquire Alba House and Salix
House which includes the 80 share ownership homes and commence work
to identify and acquire the additional 11 homes across the
borough.
A financial analysis of the
above options is included in Section 7. From a service delivery
perspective, given pressures on housing supply, the preferred
option is the only option that secures the required settled,
high-quality accommodation that will be needed for refugee
households.