Agenda item

(Report of the Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing). The report seeks approval to dispose of Council land and to agree the approach to housing delivery for the Housing Zone and the submission of a Housing Zone bid to the Greater London Authority.

Exempt information pertaining to the report is set out under Item 24 below.

Cabinet considered a report, introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, which sought approval to dispose of Council land and to agree the approach to housing delivery for the Housing Zone and the submission of a Housing Zone bid to the Greater London Authority.

The Cabinet Member noted the report marked an important milestone in the regeneration of Tottenham and for Tottenham Hale as a new affordable neighbourhood within London. The Council’s bid for a Housing Zone at Tottenham Hale would accelerate investment in the area and bring greater cohesion to the proposals coming forward.

The Leader noted that she had been contacted by Haringey Health Watch who had raised concerns with regard to the capacity of primary health care services in the area and their ability to meet the needs of a growing population. This issue had also been of concern to local Ward Members and the Council for some time. The Leader advised that the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) had invited NHS England to attend its next meeting in order to provide an overview of how the provision of GP services was being addressed in Tottenham and in London as a whole and she noted that this was an issue that the Council would continue to monitor.

In response to a question from the Leader of the Opposition, as to how the Council would ensure that the target of 50% affordable housing was achieved, given that this had not been achieved on other sites, the Cabinet Member noted that, if approved, Housing Zone status would meant that additional funding would be received that would support this aspiration.

It was suggested that it may useful to consider providing an explanation as to what the term ‘affordable housing’ actually meant in terms of cost. 

Exempt information pertaining to the report was considered at agenda item 24.

RESOLVED:

1. That approval be given to the disposal of the Council lands at Monument Way, the Welbourne Centre and lands adjacent to Tottenham Hale bus station (all of which are shown within red boundaries on the plans in Appendix 3A, 3B and 3C) as part of the Housing Zone delivery process, subject to terms to be agreed;

2. That approval be given to delegate authority to the Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing, to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with other public sector partners (at this point only Transport for London/London Underground Ltd) with regard to the pooling of relevant  public sector land assets within the Tottenham Hale Housing Zone priority area and to include the land referred to in paragraph 3.1 and to agree the terms for disposal of the land;

3. That approval be given the approach to housing delivery for the Housing Zone (set out in the report);

4. That approval be given to the submission of a Housing Zone bid to the Greater London Authority based on the above described ask (set out in the report and the paper in Appendix 2);

5. That approval be given todelegate authority to the Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development and the Assistant Director of Finance, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing, to enter into Housing Zone grant agreements with the Greater London Authority (there are likely to be multiple grant agreements covering loan, equity, grant and gap funding); and

6. That the potential requirement to use the Site Acquisition Fund to support the Housing Zone process be noted.

Alternative options considered

The Council has long been committed to the regeneration of Tottenham Hale and it has for some time been earmarked as a Growth Area (Haringey Local Plan: Strategic Policies, Tottenham Hale Urban Centre Master-plan SPD, Strategic Regeneration Framework and Physical Development Framework).  These plans include the development of a new mixed-use urban centre, or district centre.

Do nothing: allow sites to come forward in isolation using current planning policy as a steer, and allowing for infrastructure to be delivered in parts by different sites as they come forward.

Interventionist: Developing a comprehensive Council led master plan and aggressively seeking to acquire sites.

These two options were discounted in preference of a strategy which will see significant public sector control over the key place-shaping investments, while still allowing for substantial private sector investment to come forward on individual sites. There were significant concerns that a do-nothing approach would result in far fewer homes being delivered at lower quality over a longer period of time. An aggressively interventionist approach was felt to have excessive risks associated with it, however the Housing Zone does seek to acquire sites where necessary to see the regeneration plans for Tottenham Hale come forward, thus expressing the Council’s commitment to use its powers where sites are stalled or not coming forward in a reasonable timeframe.

Reasons for decision

This report asks Cabinet to agree to bid for Housing Zone resources from the Greater London Authority and to enter into grants in relation to these resources if successful. The purpose of these grants would be help shape the development of a sustainable mixed use community at Tottenham Hale and would comprise a combination of funding types ranging from direct grant funding, equity investment, loans and gap funding.

This report also asks Cabinet to agree to the disposal of identified sites currently in Council ownership, and to pool these sites with other public sector parties. These sites would then be disposed of through direct sale or through the appointment of a development partner or partners, following a procurement process. This report also asks Cabinet to note that the site acquisition fund may be used to acquire additional sites across the Housing Zone and that these may be pooled into the above procurement process.

Additionally, this report asks Cabinet to agree the approach to housing delivery which places an emphasis on affordable home ownership within the affordable portion of housing delivery and on bringing forward a proportion of homes within the private rental sector on the private portion of housing delivery.