Longbridge Statement of Principles Affordable Housing Provision - Presentation
Minutes:
The Board received a presentation from the
Head of Community Services in respect of the Statement of
Principles provision of affordable housing at Longbridge. The Board
was provided with background information as to the reasons behind
the Statement of Principles and it was stressed that this would not
apply to any other development within the district. The
presentation covered the following points in detail:
- Where possible the Longbridge site would be treated as a whole, this
was in order for the residents of Bromsgrove district to benefit as
much as possible from the site.
- The Statement of Principles had been
drawn up in order to provide both Planning and Strategic Housing
Officers with a set of agreed guidelines to assist them in
negotiating affordable housing provision at Longbridge.
- Members were provided with full
details of what was included within the guidelines.
- The proportion of new residential
development to be affordable housing, the preferred type, size and
tenure of affordable housing to be sought together with the
targeted standard of construction and the distribution within the
development, all of which would be subject to negotiation.
- How nomination rights should be
allocated between the authorities – which would allow the
flexibility to be able to access the broad range of affordable
housing delivered.
- It was stressed that the percentage
of affordable housing would vary from site to site and would be
dictated through planning applications not through the Statement of
Principles.
The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Housing,
Business Transformation, Town Centre Regeneration and Special
Projects reiterated that the key issue was the 50% nomination
rights and the Statement of Principles was a high level agreement
to enable the Council to work with Birmingham City Council.
The Chairman invited Councillor R.
Hollingworth to add any further comments and the Board was provided
with further background information in respect of the working group
which had originally been set up and had agreed to the inclusion of
the Statement of Principles.
Officers responded to questions from the Board
and discussed the following in more details:
- How the nomination rights would be
monitored in order to ensure that Bromsgrove district received the
agreed 50% - Officers would track every property that became
available in order to ensure that this happened.
- As part of the principles of the
Area Action Plan (AAP) there was a reduction in affordable housing
to 35%, this has not been maintained in respect of the “East
Works” area of the Longbridge
site. Members were informed that the
35% referred to was across the entire site.
- An independent assessor had provided
information on the viability of the site. Reference to this and possible adjustment to the
percentage was made within the Statement of Principles.
RESOLVED
that the presentation be noted.