Agenda and minutes

1.   APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor A Hodgson and Councillor K Grinsell, Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Partnerships and Well Being.

Councillor D Pinwell declared a non-pecuniary interest in respect of Agenda Item 7 ‘Council Housing Asset Management Strategy 2023-2033’, informing the Scrutiny Board that he was a member of the SCH Board.

No questions or deputations were received.

To consider for approval the Minutes arising from the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board meeting held on 13^th June 2022.

The Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board:

  RESOLVED:

(i)  To defer consideration and approval of the draft Minutes arising from the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board meeting held on 13^th June 2022 to the next Scrutiny Board meeting scheduled for 17^th January 2023.

To consider for approval the draft Minutes arising from the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board meeting held on 13^th September 2022.

Councillor McLoughlin highlighted that on page 13, fifth paragraph, the reference to ‘Blossomfield Road’ should be corrected to read ‘Blossom Field Road’

RESOLVED:

(i)  Subject to the above correction, Members of the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board agreed the Minutes arising from the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board meeting held on 13^th September 2022.

The purpose of the report is to summarise the draft Housing Strategy and Implementation Plan, set out responses received to the consultation and invite the comments of Scrutiny Board. The views of Scrutiny Board, together with consultation responses, will be reported to Cabinet when the draft Housing Strategy is considered for final approval.

The report before the Scrutiny Board provided a summary of the draft Housing Strategy, Implementation Plan and detailed responses received to the associated public consultation exercise. The Scrutiny Boards views on the draft Housing Strategy were sought, prior to a report being submitted to Cabinet in 2023 where final approval for the Housing Strategy will be sought.

An Executive Summary, Draft Housing Strategy and Implementation Plan were provided for Members at appendices 1, 2 and 3 to the report.  The Draft Housing Strategy covers the 10-year period 2023-2033. The proposed vision is that:

‘Everyone in the Borough is able to access housing at the point of need and has opportunities to create sustainable homes in thriving communities.

The report was introduced by the Strategic Housing Lead, who highlighted the respective sections of the report addressing the 10 year housing strategy 2023-2033, implementation plan, summary of intentions and commitments, housing vision, local ambitions in key areas, a breakdown of public consultation responses received and their outcomes, recurring themes arising from public consultation (e.g. housing links to health and social care, green economy and aging population), finance and partnership arrangements.

The Strategic Housing Lead also invited Members comments against the areas of the Draft Housing Strategy which addressed:

·  Vision

·  Key Housing Challenges

·  Ambitions

·  Draft Housing Strategy gaps/omissions

Having received the introduction to the report, Members of the Scrutiny Board raised several related and pertinent questions to the report, which in summary included the following matters:

Councillor Mrs Holl-Allen referenced the detail in the report alluding to ambition in relation to ‘good housing options’ and choices and queried what was the perceived balance across the housing stock when catering for the over 75’s.  The Strategic Housing Lead stated that options and choice for this demographic in the community was important and spanned options from continued independent living in the individuals own home to specialised accommodation. Furthermore, the importance of people being able to make early decisions regarding their future housing requirements was also fully recognised.

Councillor Ryan questioned how the Draft Housing Strategy would be delivered, by whom, how would delivery be measured and by whom, and how would the strategy make best use of the boroughs existing housing stock. Councillor Ryan stated that regarding the issue of housing affordability and provision of social rented housing, the draft strategy did not address these issues with adequate substance. The social rented housing stock shortage was acute in the borough, resulting in accommodating some residents outside of the borough in temporary accommodation located in West Bromwich, which was not satisfactory.  Councillor Ryan further observed that people ultimately aspired to access private freehold housing and questioned how the strategy would support delivery of this, how would the strategy be delivered, by whom, over what timeline and how would its outputs be measured.

Councillor Mackiewicz (CPH Climate Change, Planning and Housing) noted that housing themes effectively ran through all the Councils Directorates and strategies, citing examples of the Councils Local Plan and young carers strategy.  The housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Solihull Community Housing (SCH) and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) officers have been collaborating to produce a 10 year asset management strategy for the SMBC council housing stock managed by SCH. The draft strategy is attached at Appendix One and the three year Capital Investment Plan attached at Appendix Two. The purpose of this report is to seek any comments from Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board. 

SCH and Council officers have been collaborating to produce a 10-year asset management strategy for the Council housing stock managed by SCH.  The Draft Asset Management Strategy 2022-2033 was provided at Appendix 1 to the report for Member’s reference, with detail of the 3-year Capital Investment Plan attached at Appendix 2.  The purpose of the report was to receive feedback from Members of the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board on the draft strategy and Capital Investment Plan.

The Chief Executive and Executive Director (SCH) introduced the report to the Scrutiny Board and provided a PowerPoint presentation, which addressed the following areas:

·  Council Housing Asset management strategy 2023-2033 – Approach

·  National Context

·  Strategic Strategy Objectives

·  Customer Engagement

·  Planned 10 Year Capital Investment

Having received the introduction to the report and PowerPoint presentation, Members of the Scrutiny Board raised several questions pertinent to the report, Draft Asset Management Strategy and Capital Investment Plan, which in summary addressed the following issues:

Councillor Thomas raised several issues, referencing the draft Three Year Investment Plan, specifically the first objective ‘Intelligently invest sufficient resources to ensure our homes are safe, in good condition and are ‘desirable’ both now and in the future…’ noting that there was no accompanying definition of what was entailed, how the intelligence to be gathered would be used and what ultimately were the objectives.

Secondly, Councillor Thomas highlighted that the Draft Asset Management Strategy detailed the cost to retrofit properties to meet the net zero carbon target by 2041 as £234M (£12M per year), but later states that work would take place to deliver an £11M energy efficiency programme so that all properties were Band C by 2030 – initial focus on retrofit of the building fabric, smart controls and renewables. Councillor Thomas noted that this would leave a considerable amount of work to be undertaken in the last 10 years of the strategy in terms of expenditure and queried whether more grant funding was required to deliver this objective.

The Chief Executive, SCH advised that the reference to invest intelligently meant gathering evidence to gain an understanding of the performance of the housing stock to ensure wise investment decisions were made through the Capital Programme. The Executive Director, SCH confirmed regarding future ambitions and supporting funding that the £11M identified to attain Band C ratings by 2031 was already earmarked within the existing Capital Programme. If the net zero is identified as the highest priority programme in future years, then delivery of the programme would be accelerated to 2041 accompanied by increased investment.

Members were further informed that as technology was evolving at pace, SCH were prioritising delivery of insulation materials across the housing stock as well as external fabric works.  Regarding the stated ambitions reflecting all of the Council housing priorities, it was the case that more Housing Revenue Account (HRA) funding would be required for delivery or external funding secured to accelerate delivery of these objectives and priorities.

Councillor McLoughlin referenced the graph in the report detailing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The report provides Members with the opportunity to further review and agree the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board Work Programme for the remainder of the 2022/23 municipal year.

Having reviewed the Work Programme 2022/23 report, the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board:

RESOLVED:

i.  To agree the Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board Work Programme 2022/23 for the remainder of the municipal year. 

The Economic Development and Managed Growth Scrutiny Board

meeting closed at 8:02 p.m.