The Delivering Affordable Homes in Partnership Task and Finish Group is scheduled to meet to consider a scoping report that lays out how the council will review its approach to delivering affordable housing. The report, and the meeting, will examine the role of partnerships between the council and other organisations involved in housing delivery. It will also examine models for partnerships with a view to deciding what the group will explore during future meetings.

Affordable Housing Delivery in Lewisham

The meeting will consider a report entitled 'Delivering Affordable Homes in Partnership Task and Finish Group- Scoping Report'¹ which lays out how the council might improve the delivery of affordable housing in Lewisham. The report defines affordable housing as:

housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market

It is scheduled to examine the council's definition of 'affordable housing', the background to the current challenges in delivering affordable housing and to set out how the Task and Finish group will operate during its lifetime.

The report notes the range of different types of affordable housing, including homes for social rent, affordable rent and intermediate rent, as well as low-cost home ownership schemes like shared ownership and rent-to-buy. However, it proposes to focus on social and affordable rent homes.

It is scheduled to discuss a number of the causes of the housing crisis in London, including rising rents, benefit shortfalls and the shortage of social housing.

The report examines the role of local authorities in providing affordable housing, both directly and by working in partnership with housing associations and private developers, for example through Section 106² agreements.

The report lays out how Lewisham Council's own housebuilding programme, Building for Lewisham (BfL), operates to deliver new homes at social and affordable rents and for shared ownership.

Partnership Models

The report is scheduled to explore the role of partnerships in delivering affordable housing and the different types of partnerships that are possible. It identifies a number of different partnership models:

• Joint Ventures: This is where the council and a partner organisation set up a new company to develop a particular site. Both parties share the risk and reward associated with the development. The report uses the example of the Besson Street development, a partnership between the council and Grainger plc³ which will see 35% of the new homes let at an affordable rent.
• Development-led or investor-led partnerships: In these models, a private developer, or investor, provides the money to build new homes. With a development-led partnership, the council sells land to the partner; with an investor-led partnership, the investor pays for the development and then takes on some of the risk associated with operating it once it's built.
• Land-led development partnerships: This is where the council provides land to a private developer in return for a share of the homes on the site, which are then made available as affordable housing.

The report also identifies a number of potential sources of funding for affordable housing, including government grants, borrowing by the council and attracting money from private investors such as pension funds.

The Task and Finish Group

Finally, the report sets out how the Task and Finish Group will operate. It will gather evidence from a range of sources, including inviting stakeholders to give evidence to its meetings. The report lists a number of organisations that are likely to be invited to give evidence, including housing developers, registered housing providers such as housing associations, community groups and other councils.

The report concludes by proposing that the Task and Finish Group should aim to produce a report setting out its findings within nine months.