Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Housing presented the report which provided the Committee on an update in respect of the new build and acquisition pipeline. 

The Cabinet Member was pleased to announce that the new build of 20 apartments at Swinegate in Grantham had been handed over to the Council.  The apartments were a mix of one and 2 bedrooms and had been shortlisted for the Best Housing Development for the Inside Housing Development Awards which would take place in November 2025.

Construction of the development at Larch Close, Grantham had started on site. Delays had been due to the original scheme being amended from two 4 bedroom properties to adapted bungalows due to the high demand for these type of properties.  The development was due to be complete in December 2026.

Cabinet had approved the contract award to Lindum for the development at Wellington Way, Market Deeping at their September meeting.  The scheme would provide 11 affordable dwellings comprising of 5 x 2-bedroom houses, 4 x 2-bed flats and 2 x 1-bed flats which would be a mix of terrace, semi-detached houses as well as 3 apartment blocks.

The 12 empty houses at Lumbys Terrace, Stamford which required significant work to bring them up to decent homes standard had been placed on the market and two open house events had taken place.  There had been 19 interested parties in the site with eight offers made from individuals that met or exceeded the Red Book Valuation.  There were also two developers interested in two properties each.

One Member asked about the site at Kesteven Road, Stamford and the Head of Projects, Performance and Climate Change indicated that public consultation was due to take place in relation to the site towards the end of October with a possible 13 units developed on the old garage site plus a small part of green space.

Another Member congratulated the Officers and Cabinet Member for Housing for being shortlisted for the award and asked how many council houses had been lost through the RTB scheme and how many were programmed to replace them.

It was stated that since 1980 when the scheme was started South Kesteven had 10,000 council houses, they now had 5,800.  It was a “drop in the ocean” building council properties as well as slow going.  There was now little green space to develop and whenever the Council tried to develop any green space for social housing, residents protested vigorously about it, this type of development was also not the most cost effective way of using HRA funds.   The Cabinet Member for Housing stated that buying properties from developers was better as after six weeks of purchasing a property the Council had rent coming in from that property.  The average loss of council properties under the RTB scheme had been 40 a year up until last year.  Reference was made to the large number of applications that had been received before the rules around RTB had changed and some of these applications were still going through the legal system and it was expected that the numbers would increase for the year before they dropped.  Rules around RTB had changed where people now had to wait 10 years rather than five and discounts had also changed.  Reference was made to the prices of houses and why people wanted to own their own house if it was a council house.   Developments were getting closer to like for like properties and the upside of losing a house under the RTB scheme that was between 60- 70 years old was that it was replaced with a modern brand new house.

A Member asked if there was a specific criteria that the Council used when buying existing properties and whether there were any in the pipeline.   It was stated that there were 36 properties at Corby Glen for the next year.  Specific properties were bought and reference was made to a recently bought five bedroom property in Stamford which had been close to decent home standard and had not required a lot of work to bring it up to the required standard as across the Council’s stock there were very few five bedroom properties.

The Director of Housing and Projects stated that a financial assessment was carried out in respect of all properties by the Finance Team so that it met the financial criteria with payback within a certain period of time and met the Red Book valuation undertaken by a local valuer and met the needs as required on the Housing Register.

A question was raised about assets being sold by Lincolnshire County Council and the Head of Projects, Performance and Climate Change stated that LCC worked through One Public Estate.  Meetings discussed the type of properties that were being sold and South Kesteven District Council did attend the One Public Estate meeting and therefore would be aware of any potential buildings for sale. Each building would still need to be assessed using the criteria highlighted by the Director of Housing and Projects to see that it was Value for Money.

Questions were asked about the timeframe for the pipelines and when they would be available and also the situation with the sale of Lumby Terrace properties to which both the Cabinet Member for Housing and the Director of Housing and Projects replied.

Members noted the report.