Agenda item

To receive any questions relating to items on the Agenda from members of the public and replies thereto.

 

Paul Elstone:

 

Question 1

Paragraph 2.7 on Page 169 of your papers says that the Council contracted to purchase the Post Hill Site for £410,000 in December 2017. But Land Registry shows the land was purchased for £492,000 in October 2020. Can these differences be explained?

 

Question 2

In a document dated December 2017 3 Rivers are shown as a Nominee as part of the commercial transaction to acquire the Post Hill site. Please explain the full reasons as to why this Nominee status was necessary?

 

Question 3

In papers presented to the Planning Committee on the 8th June 2016, as justification for the Council buying the Post Hill Land, for Affordable Homes the following is said. “Benefits in bringing forward the development more quickly”. That was 7 years ago. Since then, David Wilson Homes, who were contractually required to build around 70 affordable homes before the Council took over this liability as part of the land purchase agreement, have now fully completed their Braid Park development with all homes occupied. Despite spending over £1 million, this Council has not put a single affordable home on the site. The Council wasted money and has effectively blocked the building of 70 Affordable Houses - how does this demonstrate the good governance that is both expected and required of a Council?

 

Question 4

According to the Land Registry, 3 Rivers paid £2.75 million plus taxes in December 2019 for land in Knowle Lane, Cullompton. The land had Outline Planning permission which had only been granted on appeal after this Council supported by Cullompton Town Council had refused it. Yet this Council lent 3 Rivers the money to buy this highly contentious plot of land.

3 Rivers has done nothing with it since and has allowed the outline planning approval to lapse. Any future development will have to apply for new Planning permission, which this Council should oppose again. The Council has allowed 3 Rivers to devalue this site, how does this demonstrate the good financial governance that is both expected and required of a Council?

 

The Leader thanked Mr Elstone for their questions and stated that a written answer would be provided. 

 

Graeme Barnell

 

Question 1

What is the strategy of this administration in addressing the availability of housing especially of affordable and social rented housing?

 

Answer

Cabinet Member for Housing and Property Services confirmed that the Council does currently have a clear Housing Strategy 2021-25, with an objective to increase the number of affordable homes and specifically to increase the Council housing stock of social and affordable rent accommodation. The report is consistent with this strategic position, nonetheless the draft Housing Revenue Account (HRA) target of 500 new Council houses in 5-years represents an acceleration and increase of the original strategy target of 160 homes.

 

Question 2

If such a strategy is being formulated, when can it be expected?

 

Answer

See above.

 

Question 3

When will regular performance data regarding the delivery of the various types of affordable housing become available? I asked many times for this KPI to be included in the regular performance updates during my time on the Council both as Cabinet member and as a member of Scrutiny and the Homes PDG but it has never happened. Perhaps you will be more successful?

 

Answer

The number of new Council houses built will be part of the new performance dashboard for Homes PDG provided on a quarterly basis.

 

Barry Warren

 

Question 1

It is noted that under Section 3 of the report on Page 175 of the papers the heading Statutory Officer sign-off/mandatory checks that the S151 Officer and Monitoring Officer signed on the 15th August 2023.  It is also noted that the Corporate Manager for Public Health, Regulation and Housing has signed on behalf of the Chief Executive/Corporate Director.

 

As the recommendations within this report have major implications for the council on a number of issues why hasn’t the Chief Executive been personally involved to safeguard the reputation of the Council?

 

 

 

 

 

Answer:

The Corporate Manager for Public Health, Regulation and Housing responded and stated that the report has been fully reviewed and approved by the Leadership Team including the Chief Executive. Nonetheless, following the retirement of the former Corporate Director responsible for Housing (Jill May), the Corporate Manager for Public Health, Regulation and Housing has been appointed to act as an interim Director for all Housing functions from 1 June 2023, therefore has authority to sign-off the report.

 

Question 2

Why have the relevant elements of this report in relation to acquiring housing and the expenditure of HRA monies not been referred to the Homes PDG (HPDG) in the first instance so that they could consider the proposals and make recommendations to Cabinet?

 

Answer:

The HPDG (and Cabinet) have already approved a policy position to build more Council Housing under the Housing Strategy 2021-25. This report does not represent a new policy approach but puts forward recommendations aligned with policy that are financial decisions relevant for Cabinet.

 

Question 3

Recommendation 1 refers to ‘subject to and agreed valuation’. Who is to set the valuation and who is to agree it?  Will it be a genuine independent valuation?

 

Answer:

Should Cabinet agree to take the recommendation forward, the final amount that the HRA pay for St George’s Court will be informed by an independent valuation. Who will provide this valuation has not been determined at this stage. This will be further informed by a valuation for the purposes of HRA rent setting for this site which legally has to be provided by the District Valuer.

 

Question 4

A potential purchase price for St George’s Court is set out in the body of this report and is given as £8.65M. What is the basis for this amount?

 

Answer:

This is the impaired value of the outstanding loan to 3RDL for St George’s Court and has been used for the basis of the appraisal of potential value for money and viability of this site to the HRA. This figure is allowed for in the draft MDDC Statement of Accounts 22/23.

 

Question 5

In the light of many concerns expressed as to the quality of workmanship on the site of St. Georges Court will there be an independent survey and report commissioned before any final valuation or agreement to purchase?

 

Answer:

The Council continues to work with 3RDL to ensure that the site meets the relevant standards of workmanship. Furthermore, the HRA would not be in a position to complete the potential acquisition of the site until full Building Control sign-off has been provided for every dwelling and all other regulatory approvals are in place.

 

Roger Davey

 

Question 1

Given the projected scale of losses incurred by 3 Rivers, in particular the town hall development. Will the council commit to finishing this project including the landscaping to as high a standard as possible and then to place it on the open market and market it aggressively in order to maximise the monies returned to the public coffers?

 

Answer

The Cabinet Member for Finance stated that the Council has committed a number of times to fund to completion both the St George's Court and Haddon Heights projects. This remains our firm commitment.

 

Question 2

Will the council arrange a public enquiry into the whole 3 Rivers debacle where all of the information held by the council and 3 Rivers is released to the public?

 

Answer

The Council has discussed the potential of a "lessons learned" piece of work. This was discussed only last week at a meeting of our Scrutiny Committee.

 

Question 3

Will the council release the cost analysis report prepared by Randell Symonds LLP for this development given that all the reasons for the original decision to withhold the report i.e. that disclosure would damage 3 Rivers ability on future contracts and would give competitors insight into the costing and procurements methods used by this company etc., are now irrelevant as the company is to be wound up?

 

Answer

The company is still trading and a formal decision on the future of St George's has not yet been finalised. Therefore the Council will not be releasing any commercially sensitive information regarding this development at the current time.