Agenda item

This report sought approval to include the proposed redevelopment of the Selby Centre site, currently used by the Selby Trust, into the Council Housing Delivery Programme. The redevelopment will be Phase 2 of the Selby Urban Village (SUV) regeneration project. The whole of the SUV was shown edged red on the plan attached at Appendix 1 of the report.

The SUV was first presented to Cabinet on 8th October 2019 for approval to appoint the recommended contractor to undertake a master planning exercise and was subsequently approved.

The intention would be to provide 202 social rented homes and 1 commercial unit on this site under the Council House Delivery Programme.

The site was council land and is shown marked “Phase 2” on the plan attached at Appendix 1. It was currently held in the General Fund (GF) portfolio, in the Bruce Castle Ward. It was proposed that the housing element of the wider SUV regeneration project be delivered by the Housing Delivery Team, and that the land be appropriated, first for planning purposes prior to commencement of construction, and subsequently for housing use into the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) portfolio prior to letting any completed homes and will be subject to a further report and Cabinet approval at Gateway 3.

The Cabinet Member RESOLVED

1. To note that the SUV was now at the end of RIBA stage 2.

2. To approve the addition of the SUV (phase 2), Selby Centre site, as shown marked “Phase 2” in Appendix 1, to the Council’s Housing Delivery Programme in order to enable progression of RIBA stage 3. This will allow the work already undertaken by the project Design Team to be completed and will allow us to bring forward a GW1 paper to New Homes Board in due course.

Reasons for decision

The Council was committed to delivering 3000 council homes by 2031. This decision would contribute to Haringey achieving their ambitious house-building programme. 4.2.

On 9 July 2019, Cabinet noted that all housing delivery schemes were subject to three formal stages of Member scrutiny and decision-making. The first stage was including any potential site into the council housing delivery programme with approval to progress design and consultation work. The second stage was when a site comes forward for planning, at which point members on the Planning Sub Committee make a decision. Finally, all sites would come back to Cabinet before any contracts were let to build or to purchase homes. This would also be the point at which any decision to formally appropriate any site from the General Fund into the Housing Revenue Account would be taken. So, this decision was the first of three stages in a triple lock, ensuring Members have full oversight of the delivery programme.

Alternative options considered

The Council had no statutory duty to develop this site. However, the Council’s top priority was the delivery of a new era of Council housebuilding. The Selby Centre would contribute around 200 council rented homes, so to exclude them from the development programme would undermine the Council’s capacity to deliver a new era of Council homes. With more than 11,000 Haringey households on the housing register, this option was rejected.