Agenda item

Reporting Persons: Louise Strongitharm / Jon Herbert / Ernest Amoako

The Chairman introduced the Housing Team who would be reporting on the item, which included Louise Strongitharm, Housing Director, Jon Herbert, Strategic Housing and Development Manager, Ernest Amoako, Planning Policy Manager, and Thomas James, Development Manager.

Ms Strongitharm shared the presentation on the second topic of housing scrutiny for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee this year, which focused on the housing delivery, policy context, barriers to affordable housing and updates on housing projects.

The Core Strategy and Policy CS12 were explained and set the figure for delivering an annual target of 102 affordable dwellings per annum until 2027.

Since the Core Strategy was adopted in 2012, the Council had delivered 581 affordable dwellings, and it was reported that 19% of the affordable homes delivered within the last five years had been through Section 106.  In terms of future projects, there were 436 new affordable homes planned to be delivered by 2023/24, 345 social/affordable rented units and 91 shared ownership/discounted sale dwellings.  Information on the unit breakdown that was required showed that one bed units were in the highest demand.

The Sheerwater Regeneration Project would replace 573 homes with 1,142 new high quality homes of which 523 (46%) would be affordable.  The long term project was phased over a 70 month period, with work on the purple phase due for completion by May 2021, it was recently advised that Covid had not effected the timeframe of the development. The Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) which included a £95 million grant from Homes England to improve the highways and rail links in the town centre and enable approximately 3,300 new homes.  More information was shared on other projects such as Hale End Court (Old Woking Independent Living), Broadoaks in West Byfleet and Portugal Road in Woking.

Congratulations were given to the Housing team on the achievement of a £2 million grants towards Hale End development.

The barriers to delivering affordable housing were also discussed, noting the impact of Covid on the economy, developers using viability arguments to reduce to avoid providing affordable housing and changes with incorporating affordable housing into an infrastructure levy following the recent Government White Paper “Planning for the Future” (August 2020).

The Housing team had worked hard to secure private rented properties and created a scheme called Let’s Rent, which offered three different service levels, to encourage landlords to let homes, through the Council, to those who could face homelessness.  It was reported that the scheme had a total of 210 properties, including the 53 that were secured in the current year.  The Thameswey “Earn Your Deposit” scheme had helped four tenants become home owners by giving them money towards a deposit, earnt through the scheme.

As requested by the Chair, Ms Strongitharm and Mr Amoako provided examples of viability assessments for the Committee, background information on why viability assessments were requested and the effect it then had on affordable dwellings were discussed.  Members felt that a stronger mechanism was required to ensure that affordable housing was always provided when planned to do so.

It was highlighted that the ratio of required dwelling types for affordable housing as stated in the SHMA was different for those of market value.  The Chairman requested that a breakdown of what had been provided for these groups and how it relates to the SHMA would be helpful ahead of the next meeting.

The Committee learnt that properties that were to be provided for Buy to Rent were exempt from having to provide affordable options, and it was thought that there needed to be a stronger mechanism in place to enable the Borough to deliver on social and affordable housing, and expressed disappointment that the examples given showed few affordables approved.

Members praised the work undertaken by the team, with the increased pressure from Covid.

Following questions raised by members, it was confirmed that the 3,300 planned new homes, which was part of the HIF bid, would enable the land to be unlocked.  Mr Amoako stressed the increasing high demand for housing in Woking, and that the HIF scheme would provide housing beyond the 2027 Local Plan, as the need for housing would continue to grow.  The infrastructure that would be provided through the HIF scheme would also enable the opportunity for Woking to cope with increase capacity and build more homes in the future. 

For rough sleepers to qualify for housing support, there was a certain criteria they would need to meet, and the team would look at if their situation was intentional, how vulnerable they were and if there was a local connection.  If the person did not meet the criteria they may not necessarily qualify for support, however during Covid, all rough sleepers and homeless had to be provided with housing without meeting the particular criteria.  The work provided by York Road was invaluable and they also provided support by funding the return of some rough sleepers to an area where they have a connection to.

Members raised concern over the figures of dwellings provided, Mr Amoako explained the way you calculate housing need was determined by the government, and the standard method was detailed in The Government White Paper, implied that Woking’s housing need would come down to 348 dwellings per year however it was still above the 292 homes currently being provided.  Government legislation advises boroughs to continue to use the 2014 projections until the method was reviewed.

It was thought that there were between 150-180 tenants still living in Sheerwater, by personal choice, and had expressed desire to move into the new properties provided by the regeneration.  It was explained that depending what phase they were living in currently and what phase their new property was in, would determine how many times they would have to move, however the team were working hard to ensure tenants only moved a minimal amount of times.  It was added that there would be a net gain of 75 affordable homes from the Regeneration project.

The viability assessment was part of the planning application, and was taken into account before the decision on the application was made.  The independent consultants reviewing the viability assessments were paid for by the developer and appointed by the local authority, there would not be any interaction between the viability consultant and the developer other than the payment of fees.

Officers had looked at office to residential conversions, and was a possibility to consider ensuring it would provide a reasonable quality of life of those who could live there.  Mr Amoako advised that some sites identified for housing, including those within the town centre, would be converted from commercial to residential. 

It was suggested by the Committee that Planning Committee members be more involved in the viability process from an early stage and Mr James advised that he would be happy to provide the Planning Committee members further training on how viability reports were put together and followed through.

The Chairman requested whether the information of housing mix could be broken down further and asked Mr Amoako to collate the information from the Monitoring Report on the provision of all types of housing against the Council policies.

The Chairman thanked all those who assisted with discussion and provided information for members.