Agenda item

That the following be agreed:

 

1.    That the main contract be awarded to Bugler Developments Ltd as Principal Contractor to construct 65 housing units at Martindale School Site, Hemel Hempstead

 

2.    To delegate authority to the Corporate Director of (Housing & Regeneration) in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing to award the main contract and appoint a Principal Contractor to construct 6 flats at Northend garage site and 6 flats at Westerdale garage site provided this is within the approved capital budget.

 

3.    To award the following grant funding payments for affordable housing developments in the Borough:

 

a.    £2,003,686 to Hightown Housing Associationfor a development known as Top Car Site, Wood Lane, Hemel Hempstead subject to the site providing car parking at a ratio of one space per residential unit.

 

b.    To approve an increase to the grant funding payment from £3,270,169 to £3,512,080 (increase of £241,911) to Hightown Housing Association for a development known as Viking House, Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead.

 

c.     In addition that authorisation is given to a +/- 5% adjustment to the stated cost figures above as a contingency sum should the Housing Association revise their cost data as these are based on current estimates which could adjust as the project develops

 

4.    That a further report be brought back to the next Cabinet to agree guidelines for grant funding in relation to car parking standards.

 

Confidential Financial details can be found in the Part ll decision sheet.

Decision

That Cabinet agrees:

 

1.    That the main contract be awarded to Bugler Developments Ltd as Principal Contractor to construct 65 housing units at Martindale School Site, Hemel Hempstead

 

2.    To delegate authority to the Corporate Director of (Housing & Regeneration) in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing to award the main contract and appoint a Principal Contractor to construct 6 flats at Northend garage site and 6 flats at Westerdale garage site provided this is within the approved capital budget.

 

3.    To award the following grant funding payments for affordable housing developments in the Borough:

 

 

 

 

4.    That a further report be brought back to the next Cabinet to agree guidelines for grant funding in relation to car parking standards.

 

 

Reason for decision

 

To be read in collaboration with the Part II financial details included in the agenda.

 

1.    To seek approval to award the main contract to construct 65 housing units at Martindale School Site, Hemel Hempstead.

 

2.    To seek approval to obtain delegated authority to award the main contract to construct 6 flats at Northend garage site and 6 flats at Westerdale garage site.

 

3.    To seek approval for the payment of “one for one” grant funding to Housing Associations (Registered Providers) delivering affordable housing schemes in the Borough.

 

 

Corporate objectives

Delivering Affordable Housing.

 

Monitoring Officer/S.151 Officer comments

 

Monitoring Officer:  

 

The proposed contract awards have followed competitive procurement processes to ensure that the Council is receiving value for money.  It is noted from the report that the model JCT Design and Build contract as approved by the Council’s external solicitors will be used and this must be completed prior to commencement of any work on site.

The funding awards will also be made subject to completion of the Funding Agreement which has been drafted by the Council’s legal team and ensures the funding is utilised within agreed timeframes.

 

S.151 Officer:

 

The resulting tender process for both future developments has provided bids that are within existing approved capital budgets.

 

The S.151 officer should be consulted prior to the award of the Northend and Westerdale contract if the final award decision results in the development costs exceeding the existing approved capital budget.

 

The award of these grants can be met from the 1-4-1 receipts and will be reported on the pooling return to MHCLG which is audited on an annual basis by DBC’s appointed external auditors.

 

The grant agreements signed by Hightown protects the council from any potential payment of any interest penalties charged for late delivery of schemes

 

Advice

 

Cllr Griffiths introduced the update, which is a report that comes to Cabinet periodically as an update on the New Build Programme.

 

DBarrett addressed the meeting and gave a summary of the recommendations and content of the report. 

 

Cllr Williams suggested that discussion will be split into two parts, deal with the Martindale, Westerdale, Northend New Build process first, then there is a Part 2 recommendation to move to with regard the funding.

 

Cllr Williams referred to the funding requests; The Wood Lane site is to develop 44 properties with in the region of 60 bedrooms, but is proposing only 37 car parking spaces.  He informed the meeting that he had advised the Director of Housing via email last week that he could not support that ratio. In his view we ought not to provide financial support to schemes that do not achieve a minimum of 1:1 parking.  

 

Cllr Williams referred to the Council adopting a more general principal and sought the Solicitor to the Council’s view; that Cabinet, subject to discussion, put down, a marker as a guide to officers, that we will not in future consider any application for 1:1 funding where a minimum level of 1:1 parking has not be achieved. He suggested this ought to be the benchmark on all new applications. He queried if it is sufficient for Cabinet to give that sort of guidance to Officers for future parking requirements on funded residential schemes, or if it would be better to have the Council consider creating a policy on the matter. 

 

DBarrett advised that his role, and that of his team, is to facilitate grant funding, which is based on achieving a scheme that is compliant with planning approval and he suggested that a similar message would need to go to Building Control as they are responsible for approving that scheme.

 

Cllr Williams stressed that Cabinet are looking at this as the grant funding body and not as planners: it is not for Cabinet to dictate rules for the Development Management process, but we are entitled to set our own requirements around funding.  They might achieve planning permission, but do not come to us to fund it if it does not meet our funding requirement for parking.

 

Cllr Marshall agreed with Cllr Williams comments, adding that she would like to see something in paper that we can refer Housing Associations to, if they are coming to us for money, we can say look we have this policy decision on parking irrespective of what the Planning Department or Development Management Committee agree.

 

Cllr Griffiths added her support; agreeing that we have the right to add our conditions when we are providing funding.  In reference to the Wood Lane End site; she would like to keep the green space they have come up with, using the under croft parking proposed, which would achieve both the parking and green space requirement.

 

DBarrett suggested that it is possible to amend the recommendation to the request is approved ‘… subject to achieving 1:1 parking…’,?  Cllr Griffiths responded that in her view it would be possible to approve subject to achieving the 1:1 parking.

 

MBrookes commented that, moving forward, if this is the approach Cabinet wish to take in terms of funding (not in terms of planning as obviously they are subject to separate process) then it would be best to bring a report back just to make sure the issues are being considered and to see what the impact of this approach has on developers. 

Cllr Griffiths added that we could also amend the scheme of delegation, for this type of scheme.

 

Cllr Marshall sought clarification, the policy on parking report could come back, but could we reach an agreement on Wood Lane End tonight?

 

Cllr Williams and MBrookes confirmed it is in order for the Cabinet to amend the recommendation to approve funding tonight subject to achieving 1:1 parking and bring a report on the general policy to the next meeting.

 

Cllr Sutton commented this falls very much in line with parking standards review, so that should coincide with this policy.

 

DBarrett referred to the second request, for Viking House, do we need to do anything regarding parking on that as it is already approved. Cllr Williams confirmed he is not suggesting a change to recommendation on this scheme, which has already been approved.

Cllr Griffiths clarified that, if they should come back with a changed application for Viking House, then the 1:1 will apply, but as they have already had grant funding, that application stands as is.

 

Recommendations agreed.

 

Voting

None.

The item then moved to a Part 2 discussion (full details can be found in Part 2 minutes).