This paper seeks agreement to proceed with the outline feasibility of an initial number of selected council owned sites and any suitable sites in third party ownership identified across the county in order to progress the pipeline of suitable sites.

This item was taken at the end of the meeting with the consent of the chairperson.

The cabinet member housing, regulatory services and community safety introduced the report. She highlighted the need for sustainable, affordable high quality homes which was recognised in the county plan. The report sought approval to commission a number of high level feasibility studies on council owned land and selected third party sites. The cabinet member stressed that at this stage only a short review of each site would be conducted to understand if it was worth taking forward for future consideration. The results of the studies would be brought back to cabinet in June or July.

The cabinet member housing, regulatory services and community safety highlighted that a corrected list of sites had been published and apologised for the inclusion of the fire station site in error.

The head of economic development summarised the work to date and the type of studies that would be carried out to identify opportunities and constraints on each site. It was noted that some of the sites might have alternative uses and these would not be ruled out by the feasibility work.

In discussion of the report cabinet members noted that:

·         once the initial feasibility work had been completed, it would be open to the council to progress some, all or none of the sites;

·         infrastructure requirements would be identified as part of the process;

·         a consultant had been appointed to advise on delivery of net zero carbon housing;

·         concerns previously raised regarding the suitability of some of the sites would be taken into account;

·         the impact of the pandemic on projections of population growth, employment levels and the economy would need to be considered.

Group leaders were invited to present the views and queries of their respective groups. The principle of provision of affordable homes was generally supported although not all groups felt that the council should be delivering these directly. It was noted that:

·         loss of the car parking at the bus station could have a negative impact, in particular for staff at the hospital;

·         the ambition to deliver net zero carbon homes was supported but care should be taken on the spend on consultancy work;

·         other amenities could be provided on these sites alongside or instead of affordable housing;

·         expectations needed to be managed as sites could take some time to bring forward;

·         attention was drawn to the links between housing and infrastructure projects and the role the council should play in facilitating housing delivery;

·         there were concerns about the long term burden on the council’s finances of owning affordable housing.

It was resolved that:

(a)          Cabinet agrees to proceed with the outline feasibility work for net zero carbon affordable housing at the initial selected council owned sites and any other suitable sites in third party ownership that may be available across the county.  The sites will be prioritised to meet the demands based on market needs analysis