Agenda item

FWilliamson introduced report the report, the purpose of which is to review the acquisitions policy that has been developed to provide HRA with opportunity to purchase property from open market and consider s.106 units which are currently being purchased by alternate providers.  This policy sets out a criteria on where it is prudent to purchase from open market or buy back from those who have purchased through right to buy.  Along with opportunity to address the homelessness crisis by buying temporary accommodation to reduce pressure on use of Bed & Breakfast.

FWilliamson invited questions.

Cllr Mahmood referred to item 3.2 in the report and asked, are we going to be increasing the prices of housing in the Borough and therefore creating a disadvantage for first time buyers.  FWilliamson responded our intention is not to look at whole scale acquisitions, it is just to provide us with the opportunity, particularly those 106 properties that have to be defined as affordable and have been put out to the open market by developers but where they have not been successful in selling them.  The 106 properties are the affordable housing elements that developers have to include.  We want to have the viability to purchase those properties and let them at social rent level rather than affordable, it will not in any way impact the private sale market.

Cllr Mahmood asked that this point is made clear in the report.  FWilliamson responded that she can look at making some amendments to wording to make it clear this is not about us trying to purchase property from the open market, this is about acquisition possibilities, only for circumstances where developers are looking to offload property.

Action: FWilliamson to review wording of item 3.2 of report

Cllr Mahmood asked, can we buy garage sites ourselves?  FWilliamson responded they are owned by the general fund, if HRA want to purchase those for housing it is based on a red book valuation.

Cllr England commented that he likes the idea of giving ourselves the ability to buy land that becomes available because developers want to move on elsewhere.  However, he is uncomfortable about buying the excess units developers haven’t been able to sell as it feels like we are providing a safety net for developers.  FWilliamson responded it is not about creating an opportunity, the current situation is that developers would offer those to registered providers, so there is no new safety net.  This is about trying to open up more for social rent rather than the providers that charge affordable rents – which are 80% of market rates.  We charge social rent – which is around 24-30% market rent. 

Cllr Griffiths added, this isn’t a compulsory thing we have to do, we will only purchase properties we want to.

Cllr Imarni added we have over 10,000 people on our housing waiting list, commenting that if an opportunity comes up to purchase some stock, we should be able to.

Cllr Freedman expressed that he feels it is a very good policy, giving us an opportunity not an obligation to be able to do something.  Cllr Freedman asked; how long has it been since the Council has purchased property or land instead of developing itself?

FWilliamson confirmed we have purchased some land for development but have never exercised our right to purchase back a property from the open market.  We have exercised our right to buy back in very specific cases where people have got into difficultly.

Cllr Freedman asked, in terms of the land, has this been land in use?  FWilliamson advised that through the development programme we have purchased sites that had previous use, such as office use.  Some of them have had previous use, some have been brownfield sites or allocated housing sites. 

Cllr Freedman referred to the allocated housing sites, asking; have we made any purchases in recent years?  FWilliamson confirmed it was in the recent development programme which commenced in 2014.  First site we developed was a site we owned already and were working with registered provider to develop out the site but they were taking too long so we exercised our right to develop out the site ourselves.

Cllr Freedman commented that he infers from that, we already have a purchase policy in place and a way to evaluate things, asking is it the case that this proposes to expand that policy into other purchase opportunities?  FWilliamson confirmed, yes, to purchase properties that are surplus to developer’s requirements and also property from the open market which may be suitable to use for temporary accommodation due to the location, where we may not want in our portfolio for long term accommodation, but where it would provide suitable safe accommodation for us to use on a temporary basis.