Agenda item

Report for consideration by the Joint Committee.

The West of England Joint Committee RESOLVED:

- To approve the draft West of England Housing Delivery Strategy.

The Joint Committee considered a report seeking approval of the West of England Housing Delivery Strategy (agenda item 12). 

The Chair welcomed the report, highlighting that it was the result of extensive collaboration with the unitary authorities.  He further commented that:

* The shared ambition is to increase and accelerate delivery of new homes of all tenures, particularly affordable housing, to support priority locations where market failure either prevents housing coming forward quickly enough, or at all.

* Through intervening at a strategic, regional level, the intention is to maximise the impact of aligning focus and resources and deliver better outcomes for communities.

* The strategy is based on an initial funding package to 2023 of approximately £40m from the WECA Investment Fund and a bid for £500k One Public Estate 8 funding.

The recommendations as set out in the published report were then moved by the Chair and seconded by Cllr Romero.

Cllr Savage welcomed the strategy.  He added that the West of England has always been an attractive and relatively prosperous place to live and that the demand this brings for new housing cannot be underestimated.  He also welcomed the investment coming through that will support authorities in delivering housing; a really good example was featured in a later agenda item, namely the use of housing and regeneration enabling funding. From South Gloucestershire’s perspective, this enabling funding gives the authority the ability to invest in capacity to pro-actively develop housing and land acquisition propositions, to bring forward strategic schemes and meet the aims and aspirations that the authority has to ‘raise the bar’ in standards of new development and truly serve the needs of communities.

Cllr Romero welcomed the strategy. She commented that affordable housing, in a variety of guises, was a top priority for Bath & North East Somerset.  The strategy will help the authority to deliver this priority.

Mayor Rees welcomed the strategy and the formalising of the strategic partnership with Homes England.  The region has developed a reputation for its focus on delivery and for being prepared to consider taking forward new models of delivery; this is crucial in attracting developers and inward investment.  He added that the city region is an attractive place, as is shown by the number of people moving to Bristol and surrounding areas from London.  Analysis shows that Bristol itself will grow by approximately 96,000 people in the next 25 years; currently, there is a housing crisis in Bristol, not just in term of housing supply but also in terms of affordability and social segregation, ‘gentrification’ and other dynamics; on top of this, the housing crisis must be tackled in the context of the climate and ecological emergency.  It will be imperative to recognise that the kind of homes we build, and where we build them will among the most significant determinants of our planetary impact over the coming decades.  It will be essential to create the framework by which we will meet this regional challenge which is part of our participation in a global challenge.  In this context, he was pleased to see the strategy come forward and was supportive.  It would also be important to be mindful of pursuing discussions with the government and Homes England around recently announced changes to the housing formula (housing targets for local authorities) which brought increased challenges to housing delivery.

Cllr Romero then additionally commented on the challenges brought about through the government’s announced changes to the housing formula.  She also stressed how important it is for Bath & North East Somerset to be able to create affordable homes in rural areas as well as in towns, especially in the context of how working patterns may change post-Covid. If working from home became the ‘new norm’, there is likely to be more demand from people wishing to work and live in rural areas; she hoped that there will be scope within the strategy for this to be delivered too.

Cllr Davies welcomed the strategy but commented, for context, that the vast majority of this funding will not go to North Somerset as it was not a member of the Combined Authority; the challenges for North Somerset are at least as great as those faced by other authorities in the region, for example in terms of the same pressures on housing delivery, including delivering homes in rural areas.  The most important point of all, in his view, is that this strategy has been written at a time of great uncertainty, and it may be necessary to regularly review the strategy as the region and the country adapt as the pandemic eases.

The Chair then moved to the voting on the recommendations. Voting took place as per constitutional requirements.

The West of England Joint Committee RESOLVED:

- To approve the draft West of England Housing Delivery Strategy.