Presentation from the Corporate Director (Housing and Communities) providing an update on the Council-owned housing company, Now Housing Limited.
Minutes:
Presentation from the Corporate Director (Housing and Communities) providing an update on the Council-owned housing company, Now Housing Limited (Ltd).
The overarching objective of Now Housing Ltd was to provide good quality, genuinely affordable housing to local residents who had lower priority on the Housing Needs register or who were not eligible for social rented housing but who were not able to afford to buy or rent in the private sector. Now Housing Ltd would complement the Council’s provision of social rented homes which it delivered through its Housing Revenue Account. The company would support the growing local demand for a mix of housing tenures by providing intermediate, low cost home ownership or open market homes and letting sub-market and market rented homes.
The business plan for Now Housing Ltd had been developed following legal advice from Trowers and Hamlin and financial advice from Savills.
The company would be financially robust, aiming to generate a small profit to be used for the purpose of providing more affordable housing and deliver financial returns to the shareholder.
The Council recently commissioned a report by Savills to identify affordability and demand issues in Welwyn Hatfield. Savills concluded that the greatest opportunity would be for the company to provide one and two bedroom homes in Welwyn Garden City and one bedroom homes in Hatfield.
The Council would be the Shareholder with Cabinet acting on behalf of the Council. The Shareholder Group (Chief Executive, S.151 Officer, Monitoring Officer and Director of Public Protection, Planning and Governance) would act on behalf of the Shareholder. The Housing Company Board (Director of Housing and Communities, Heads of Service within Housing Team, Independent Member and Financial Support) was accountable to the Shareholder, must comply with the Shareholder Agreement and achieve the business plan objectives.
The business plan target for additional homes was 372 homes delivered over five years. The affordable housing activities of the company would be 100% loan financed through on-lending by the Council. The Council will make a profit on the loan as it would be paid back with interest. Cabinet had agreed £77m of finance.
Now Housing Ltd would start trading in spring 2020 with their first intermediate rented homes at local housing allowance with the tenants drawn from the housing needs register where possible. There would be a formal public launch at the end of May.
The company was working with partners to develop a brand which could be launched as a national exemplar. Members commented on the need for licensing and control of the brand to avoid it being used for something that was not approved of.
Members discussed the possibility of the Housing Company buying the Wheat Quarter.
Officers explained that a development of that scale would need a large amount of resources and the company would need to make a lot of changes to deliver something of that scale. The company would be commissioning internal services at the moment. It could be something to consider and would be discussed at their next Board Development team meeting.
RESOLVED:
That the update on the Now Housing Limited be noted.