Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Built Environment

The Cabinet considered a report by the Director of Built Environment which set out the potential implications of the cessation of Housing Market Renewal funding by the Government and sought authority to use the New Homes Bonus allocation for 2011/12 to fund activity and prudential borrowing in order to fund the completion of the incomplete elements of the Housing Market Renewal Programme.

This was a Key Decision and was included in the Council’s Forward Plan of Key Decisions.

RESOLVED: That

(1)      approval be given to the inclusion of £9.32m in the capital programme to meet both contractual obligations and the costs of future activity in respect of Housing Market Renewal, in order to remove any liabilities relating to the cessation of dedicated funding;

(2)      approval be given to the expenditure outlined in (1) above being funded from the following sources:-

          (a)      the £2.4m New Homes Bonus allocation for 2011/12, paid as £0.4m per annum for six years;

          (b)      estimated £5.7m of future New Homes Bonus monies generated in the Housing Market Renewal Area between 2012/13 and 2019/20 inclusive; and

          (c)      £1.22m of prudential borrowing previously earmarked by the Cabinet for housing purposes;

(3)      it be noted that because the New Homes Bonus allocation, detailed in the report, would be paid to the Council over a number of years, short term borrowing may be required to finance the expenditure over the early part of the programme;

(4)      approval be given to the submission of bids for grant funding support, utilising the above funding sources as ‘match funding’; and

(5)      the Housing Market Renewal Programme be reviewed in the light of any successful bids for funding and any changes that may be made in the future by the Government to the New Homes Bonus Scheme.