Issue - meetings

Consider report by Service Director Regulatory Services (copy attached).

7.1       There had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Regulatory Services advising Members of the affordable housing annual completions and progress made in the delivery of the Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) projects for the period 2018-19.  The Chief Planning Officer, Ian Aikman, was in attendance to present the report and answer Members’ questions.  He explained that the SHIP 2019-24, agreed by Council and submitted to Scottish Government in November 2018, had received very positive feedback from Scottish Government officials.  For the financial period 2018-2019, 191 affordable homes weredelivered against envisaged projects set out in the current SHIP.  This exceeded the Council’s Local Housing Strategy 2017-2022 (LHS) annual target of 128 new affordable homes, but was slightly less than the 213 homes originally envisaged to be delivered in 2018/19 as per SHIP 2019-24.  A table within the report detailed Registered Social Landlord (RSL) project completions within 2018-19.  Mr Aikman explained that the Scottish Government 2018-19 allocation of £14.065m to the Scottish Borders area was a record high level of external funding allocated to Scottish Border to date.  However, there had been some slippage for a variety of reasons, such as statutory consent processes, site acquisitions and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency objections resulting in around £2.3m underspend which had had to be handed back to Scottish Government.   Scottish Government, Scottish Borders Council and RSLs were looking to work together to ensure maximum spend in 2019-20.  In an update to the figure stated within the report, Mr Aikman was pleased to advise that the allocation from Scottish Government to assist with the delivery of affordable housing projects in the Scottish Borders during 2019-20 had been increased to £15.998m with a projected allocation of £16.972m for 2020-21.  This was a significant increase to deliver an enhanced delivery programme.

5.2         Members welcomed the report which was positive in terms of exceeding the target for the number of homes delivered under the SHIP programme of projects and increased level of investment in the delivery of affordable homes.  With reference to the slippage there was emphasis on the importance of focusing on project approval in order to ensure that the total amount of funding allocated would be spent. A plea was made for robust conversations between officers and Members on project proposals at an early stage to address any local planning concerns and to ensure the provision of high quality developments in every case.  In endorsing the progress made, Members also noted the contribution of the SHIP programme of investment in terms of economic development in the area and congratulated the officers involved in its delivery.

DECISION

AGREED to endorse the progress made in the delivery of affordable housing in 2018 – 2019.