Agenda item

Councillor Ron Ower, Cabinet member for Housing Company Development and oneSource Management, introduced the report

Cabinet was reminded that following its approval on the 24 September 2014, the Rainham and Beam Park Housing Zone bid was submitted to the GLA.  The submission was successful and Havering’s status as a Housing Zone Borough was announced on the 25 June 2015.  The legal and administrative process to formally allocate monies was now in the due diligence phase with the GLA having appointed external consultants to review individual components of the bid.  The London Borough of Havering was being asked by the GLA to enter into an Overarching Borough Agreement (OBA) with it.

The OBA was the agreement which embodied the basis of the Housing Zone principles and arrangements with successful bidding Boroughs.  It might be revised and/or amended at the discretion of the GLA and boroughs to reflect Zone specific or other provisions.  Upon the signing of the Agreement, the GLA would allocate budget resources of £30.56m for the delivery of the Rainham and Beam Park Housing Zone programme.

Under this agreement a suite of individual funding agreements relating to each of the ten major project strands in the Rainham and Beam Park Housing Zone programme would sit.  These would be drawn up as the major projects were refined as the Housing Zone moved forward and would form the contractual basis for the drawing down of Housing Zone funding.

The report sought Cabinet’s approval to enter into the GLA’s Overarching Borough Agreement for the Rainham and Beam Park Housing Zone and delegated authority to enter into individual funding agreements.

Reasons for the decision:

The Housing Zone programme would give access to significant investment in Havering which would in turn improve development viabilities and allow for investment prior to housing delivery.

Other options considered:

Not entering into the Overarching Borough Agreement had been rejected.  From officer discussions with the GLA, housing associations and developers, it was clear that proposals for new housing already were coming forward for sites in the proposed Rainham and Beam Park Housing Zone area and it was also found that additional sites would be marketed soon - including those put forward by the GLA itself. 

Without Housing Zone funding to provide essential infrastructure and land assembly, the likelihood was that development would proceed but in a piecemeal manner and with limited Council ability to guide quality of design and provide community facilities with the possible prospect of development resulting in future liabilities to the Council.  With piecemeal developments, developers could argue against increased financial contributions to infrastructure and affordable housing on the grounds that their development in isolation had only a minimal impact on the area and that London’s general housing shortage outweighed the need for contributions.

Cabinet:

1.                Agreed to the Borough entering into the Overarching Borough Agreement with the GLA. 

2.                Delegated to the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Member for Housing Company Development & oneSource Management and the Group Director Community and Resources the approval of subsequent individual transactions, project business cases and funding agreements.

3.                Agreed to the establishment of the Rainham and Beam Park Housing Zone board and governance arrangements as set out in Section 4.0 of the report.

4.                Agreed in principle to the establishment of funding pots of S106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions from developments coming forward in the Housing Zone to support the delivery of key infrastructure and be available to assist in repaying any forward funding from ‘GLA recoverable grant’.  The terms of any repayment to be delegated to the Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Member for Housing Company Development & oneSource Management and the Group Director Community and Resources for approval.