Issue - meetings

[Report of the interim Strategic Director for Planning, Regeneration and Development. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing, Planning and Regeneration.] The purpose of this report is to set out the next steps for developing a leaseholder offer for Love Lane leaseholders, following the recent engagement and consultation on the ‘Enhanced Love Lane Leaseholder Offer document’  (Appendix 1) which set out the Council’s proposed offer to Love Lane leaseholders.

The Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning introduced the report, which set out the next steps for developing a leaseholder offer for Love Lane leaseholders.

The Cabinet Member advised that the Council had received legal advice that the consultation on the leaseholder offer for Love Lane leaseholders had two challenges and there was a need to re-consult on the leaseholder offer. Therefore, the report was seeking approval to re- consult and also seeking a delegation to the Strategic Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development and the s151 Officer to agree all third party acquisitions (including all acquisition prices, costs, compensation packages and fees) within the High Road West Regeneration area (other than any compulsory acquisitions).

The Cabinet Member emphasised that the Council had been working hard with leaseholders on the offer and remained committed to continuing this work.

In response to questions from Cllr Engert and Cllr Brabazon, the following information was noted:

• In relation to the requirement to re-consult, it was important to note the significant and wide officer effort involved in planning, organising and delivery of consultation. However, as this process often involved complex legal issues, sometimes issues could emerge later on.

• With regard to the constitutional question raised on the delegations to the director, this recommendation was required to provide necessary authority for the Council to negotiate private treaty agreements and CPO action was only a last resort. Paragraph 5.3 of the report further demonstrated that there were a significant number of property interests within the High Road West area, which were anticipated to be above £500,000 and as such, a Cabinet decision would be required for every acquisition. Given that each Cabinet decision had up to a three-month lead in process, seeking Cabinet approval would not only cause time delays, it would also considerably congest the Cabinet agenda. It was absolutely the case, to ensure the successful delivery of the Scheme, Officers needed to be able to negotiate and finalise transactions in an expedient manner so that third party interests are happy to transact with the Council. The Monitoring officer also confirmed that, as this was a delegation from Cabinet, it did not require a change to the Constitution and consideration at Standards Committee.

• The Cabinet Member emphasised that the consultation needed to be re – run to provide clarity on two issues. Firstly, to set out why the commitments within the offer are the Council’s preferred set of commitments. Secondly, to clarify the definitions of resident and non-resident leaseholder in the Love Lane Offer and to be aligned with the definitions set out in the Leaseholder Guide (agreed by Cabinet in 2014).

• With regard to the accessibility of the consultation documentation, this was felt appropriate, considering there were complicated issues and movement of funds to be explained. However, the Cabinet Member offered to liaise with the Council Communications team about further ways to improve the understanding of the consultation documentation by leaseholders and tenants. It was important to note that the consultation documentation had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 195