Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Housing and Growth. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal.]

To agree the final draft of amended Appendix C, and the deletion of Appendix D, of Haringey's Housing Strategy 2017-2022, following consultation.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal introduced this report which sought Cabinet approval to the draft of amended Appendix C, and the deletion of Appendix D, of Haringey’s Housing Strategy 2017-2022, following consultation. The Cabinet Member acknowledged the administration had been elected on a manifesto which committed to the following five pledges for housing:

• To deliver a thousand new council homes by 2022
• To review the planning targets and ensure new ‘affordable’ is genuinely affordable
• To expand our landlord licensing scheme to cover all wards
• To ensure that new housing for sale is made available to Haringey residents first, and
• To aim to end street homelessness in Haringey by 2022.

The Cabinet Member outlined that Haringey’s Housing Strategy set the strategic direction for housing in the borough. The Council last published a Housing Strategy in 2016. Since that time, there had been important changes at the national and regional level, with which the existing strategy was considered no longer relevant.

The Cabinet Member continued to highlight, that the Government had abandoned a number of proposed housing policies and there has been a renewed focus on social housing. At the same time, the lifting of the HRA borrowing cap and the significant funding for new Council housing from the GLA transformed the potential to develop new Council housing. The Council had made a successful bid for funding which meant it would receive a £62.8m grant to deliver Council homes.

The Cabinet Member noted work on a new housing strategy had already been undertaken, but to ensure consistency, it needed to follow the adoption of the Borough Plan, reflecting and expanding on the housing aims in that document. In the interim, it was proposed that Appendix C of the current Housing Strategy be amended, to define more clearly what was meant by affordable housing. The new Appendix was clear that the Labour administration’s first priority was Council Rented homes and that it would ensure other affordable homes delivered in the borough would be affordable to existing residents. Developing a new housing strategy to address all the Council’s housing commitments would be a priority for the Labour administration in 2019.

The Cabinet Member was to establish a Member group to help guide the work above to collaborate with fellow councillors.

Following questions from Cllr Dennison, the following was noted:

• The focus would not be isolated to specific areas of the borough but rather on a site-by-site basis, dependent on what that site was able to offer. Officers confirmed the principal intention was to redress the balance of particular types of housing in parts of the borough. Site-by-site flexibility was a key approach to ensuring that the best outcome was achieved across the borough.
• The Cabinet Member’s preference was for social rent to London Living Rent and affordable Rent.
• Officers confirmed the policy stated social rent housing was the preferred option on affordable rented housing but recognised the distinction between social rented and intermediate homes. Within the intermediate category, the policy was clear that the preference was for intermediate rents at London Living Rent levels.

Cllr Dennison would be provided with a written response regarding the rationale for the requirement of 10% of all affordable homes to be wheel chair accessible, with 20% the desirable figure, but noted those figures would have been the result of research and an understanding of what the general needs were across the borough.

RESOLVED

1. To note the outcome of the consultation process on Appendix C of the Housing Strategy and the deletion of Appendix D of the Housing Strategy.

2. To recommend that Full Council approve the adoption of Appendix C of the Housing Strategy, as amended as set out in paras 6.21 – 6.23, and the deletion of Appendix D of the Housing Strategy.

Reasons for decision

The Council’s current Housing Strategy was set in 2016. Since then, the policy context has changed and a new administration has been elected with different priorities to the previous administration particularly with regard to housing.

In addition, decisions taken since May 2018 have fundamentally altered the Council’s approach to housing, notably:

• The decision not to proceed with the Haringey Development Vehicle
• The decision to set up a wholly owned company to help deliver 1,000 Council homes at Council rents

This means that the existing strategy, adopted in November 2016, is no longer a good fit with the ambitions of the new administration and there is a need to produce a new strategy to better reflect these.

One particular issue is a renewed emphasis on housing for social rent as affordable housing.

In advance of the development, consultation, and publication of this new housing strategy, it is proposed that Appendix C of the existing strategy is amended and Appendix D deleted to ensure the Council’s housing policy framework reflects this changed environment, and the Council’s new priorities. This requires no revision of the Borough Plan.

Alternative options considered

The alternative option would be not to amend Appendix C and not to delete Appendix D of the current Housing Strategy. Given Cabinet’s agreement to consult on the amendment and deletion in November 2018, and the consultation with stakeholders, this would not be an acceptable course of action.