Cheshire East Housing Strategy
To receive a presentation from the Head of Planning & Policy.
Minutes:
Karen Carsberg attended the meeting and gave a presentation on the Council’s Housing Strategy which was currently in its public consultation period.
Karen explained that the process to produce the strategy had started with a number of consultation events in 2010.
The strategy set out the vision and priorities for housing between 2011 and 2016.
The Council’s vision stated that housing supported the creation of balanced and sustainable communities in Cheshire East, where all residents could achieve independent living in good quality affordable homes that were appropriate to their needs.
The strategy had the following 5 priorities:
l Delivering market and affordable housing
l Making the best use of our existing stock
l Meeting the needs of our most vulnerable residents
l Meeting the needs of an ageing population
l Investing in our neighbourhoods
Karen explained that the Council was facing a serious shortfall in affordable housing provision, as a significant proportion of houses in Cheshire east were unaffordable for first time buyers due to the level of deposit required by lenders. There was also a shortage of both private and social rented accommodation with 80% of Cheshire of Cheshire East housing stock being in owner occupation.
Karen also reported upon the Council’s policy to bring back into use the 3000 properties known to be empty in the Borough. The Council ultimately had enforcement powers to bring them back into use. However, the Council had developed a toolkit for landlords which provided a range of solutions to avoid the enforcement route.
In response to a question about how the Council engaged with landlords who were not based in the Borough, Karen explained that the Council supported two very active land lord forums split between North and South of the Borough.
In response to a further question regarding what partnership arrangements existed in Cheshire East with Social Housing providers, Karen explained that all the key agencies were brought together on a regular basis (Chesire East Strategic Housing delivery group) and through the Local Area Partnerships (LAP’s) and that specifically within the Congleton LAP, there existed a separate Housing sub-group.
In response to a question regarding powers available to the Council to protect affordable housing schemes, Karen explained that through section 106 agreements, affordable housing could be preserved in perpetuity as affordable housing. However, in some cases, owners had the ability to ‘staircase out’, potentially having the ability to own 100% of the property.
A definition of affordable homes could be found in Planning Policy Statement 3(PPS3) which stated that affordable housing should:
meet the needs of eligible households including availability at a cost low enough for them to afford, determined with regard to local incomes and local house prices, include provision for the home to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households or, if these restrictions are lifted, for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision.
RESOLVED – That the presentation be noted