238 Council Housing Delivery Programme PDF 417 KB
[Report of the Assistant Director for Housing.
To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate
Renewal.]
The
report seeks Cabinet approval for sites to be entered into the
Council Housing Delivery Programme, and will include an update on
the programme.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Clerks note -The
Leader left the meeting following his earlier declaration of
interest and Cllr Chandwani, Deputy Leader chaired the meeting for
this item.
The Cabinet Member for Housing
and Estate Renewal, introduced the report which provided an update
on the Council’s progress towards the Borough Plan target to
deliver 1,000 Council homes for Council rent by 2022 and noted
progress on providing homes for homeless families through the
Haringey Community Benefit Society (CBS). The report further set
out an initial assessment of the likely impact of the COVID-19
crisis on the housing delivery programme, including on its
viability.
Cabinet were
asked to add seven new sites of Council land - including land at
Kerswell Close - to the housing delivery programme, and to remove
the Roundway site from the programme.
Following questions from Cllr
Jogee, Cllr Connor and Cllr das Neves the following information was
provided by the Cabinet Member and the
Interim Assistant Director for Housing.
- With regards to
concerns raised on the inclusion of Stokley court as a potentially
suitable site on which to build new Council homes, the Cabinet
Member provided assurances that there were no current plans to
demolish any homes and no decisions had been made for the site.
This Cabinet decision was the first stage of consideration in a
defined process of engagement and consultation. Stokley
court was previously approved for potential
development by Cabinet on 9 July 2019. However, that approval was
for a small infill scheme on the adjacent car park. Investigations
of the site had identified the potential for a larger scheme, and
the report was seeking Cabinet approval of investigation of that
wider site.
- The designation of
Stokley court as a “Good Neighbour Scheme” means that
the current building is not meeting tenants’ access needs.
This block was part of a review by
Homes for Haringey of its Sheltered Housing and Good Neighbour
Schemes and was identified as needing considerable refurbishment.
The Cabinet Member expressed, that there was a need for a broader
approach to understand the potential of a bigger scheme for the
site and increasing the housing currently available. The Council
were being open and transparent in their consideration of this site
and wanting to engage with Councillors and residents. If following
this engagement and consultation there were valid objections, or if
investigations demonstrated that it was not appropriate to take
forward this site in the housing delivery programme, then the
scheme would not proceed.
- Responding to the
concerns on the uncertainty and anxiety that this engagement period
of 9 months may create for residents in this scheme, the Cabinet
Member gave assurance that residents would not be obligated to move
from this site if they did not want to. The Cabinet Member was
happy to write to residents to give them this assurance as well as
Chettle Ct residents who had expressed similar
concerns.