Agenda and minutes

New Homes Bonus Spotlight Review, Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Friday, 19th January, 2018 10.00 am, NEW

Venue: Committee Suite 1,2 & 3, Westfields, Middlewich Road, Sandbach CW11 1HZ. View directions

Contact: Mark Nedderman Senior Scrutiny Officer

Items
No.	Item
1.	Also Present Minutes: Councillor Paul Bates- Finance & Communications Portfolio Holder Councillor Janet Clowes- Adult Care & Integration Portfolio Holder Jan Willis- Interim Executive Director of Corporate Services Alex Thompson- Head of Finance & Performance Nichola Glover-Edge- Director of Commissioning Kirstie Hercules- Partnerships Manager
2.	Apologies for Absence View the background to item 2. Minutes: Councillors S. Gardiner and T. Dean.
3.	Declarations of Interest View the background to item 3. To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest.
4.	Declaration of Party Whip View the background to item 4. To provide an opportunity for Members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda. Minutes: There were no declarations of the existence of a party whip.
5.	Public Speaking Time/Open Session View the background to item 5. A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee. Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers. Note: In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public contacted the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting to provide brief details of the matter to be covered. Minutes: There were no members of the public who wished to speak.
6.	New Homes Bonus To receive evidence from portfolio holders and officers of the Council on options available to the Council relating to a proposal to allocate £2m of New Homes Bonus over the next two years for community priorities which has been put forward as part of the 2018/19 pre-budget report. Minutes: Each of the following Members attended he meeting and addressed the Committee in respect of this matter. Councillor Toni Fox asked the Committee to consider if there was any feedback from the community, including town and parish councils, on the pre-budget consultation as to how the £2 million could be spent. Councillor Fox added a suggestion for the Committee to consider how other local authorities distributed its NHB and for Cheshire East to consider recompense specifically to those communities who had experienced a large proportion of new homes schemes. Councillor Derek Hough stated that the New Homes Bonus was introduced to address the number of new houses being built and noted that it was within the scope to use the funds to reduce council tax. He asked the Committee to define the term ‘local’ when making any recommendations on local benefit, because residents in Wilmslow for example, were not local to Alsager. He concluded, by suggesting that the NHB should be spent where the homes had been built. Councillor Amanda Stott expressed the view, that NHB should be allocated to those areas where the homes have been built and back to those communities as recompense. Jan Willis, Interim Executive Director of Corporate Services gave a short presentation on the New Homes Bonus (NHB), which were funds provided to the Council based on the net increase in homes, with further bonus for affordable homes. The NHB scheme started in 2011 and was reviewed in 2016, when changes were made to free up £800 million to meet Adult Social Care costs. Additionally a Provisional Settlement was confirmed in December 2016 that reduced the number of years the NHB was paid from six to four years, an introduction of a 0.4% threshold in growth before any payment and the future possibility that the grant would be withheld for builds after appeal or where there was no Local Plan in place. The Council had received £35.29 million of NHB to date with a further £1.57m from Affordable Homes with an increase of 5,649 homes. There were four areas in Cheshire East with a concentration of 500 new properties or more: Crewe, Sandbach, Congleton and Macclesfield. Middlewich has between 301-400. The Committee heard that the Department for Local Government (DCLG) had introduced a level of flexibility to the scheme so that local authorities could decide how to spend the funding in line with the community wishes in particular those affected most by housing growth. The Committee sought clarification as to how the £2million had been calculated. Jan advised that this was a meaningful amount and roughly equal to the amount of money freed up through the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP). In response to a question about whether or not the NHB had to be spent on infrastructure as suggested by the DCLG. Jan suggested that this was not the case, however the guidance did suggest pooling it with other funding streams. Alex Thompson, Head of Finance and Performance, presented the Committee with three different ... view the full minutes text for item 6.