Agenda item

The board considered a report of the Strategic Planning Manager that provided a regular quarterly update on the progress to date in delivering the High Level Deliverables for the Housing and Land Portfolio and confirmed that considerable progress had been made under each deliverable.  In particular, some £153.4m has been made available by Government to the WMCA through the Brownfield Housing Fund announcements, to be deployed through the Single Commissioning Framework.

The Executive Director of Housing, Property and Regeneration, Gareth Bradford briefed the Board on two deliverables around the public land charter and the strategic partnerships. On the first this is due to be launched this month and Gareth committed to share the final version before it went public. On the signing of strategic partnerships and entering into joint ventures good progress was being made. As well as three strategic partnerships already in existence (with St Modwen, Lovell and Urban Splash), a number of national companies have approached the WMCA to express an interest in working in the West Midlands at regional scale with WMCA similar to the other strategic partners i.e. L&G, Keepmoat, M&G, Segro and Aviva.  All want to work with WMCA at regional scale, going above and beyond the requirements of the SCF, aligning with the WMCA aims and objectives and committing to major new investment or housing/commercial supply in the region. Currently, these companies are discussing with WMCA their commitments and ambitions for the region and Gareth reminded the Board these were MoUs and thus non-binding statements of intent. It is anticipated that strategic partnership memorandums of understanding (MoUs) will follow this year in due course building on the Housing and Land Delivery Board’s track record of signing beneficial strategic partnerships in recent years. Cllr Bird pointed to Urban Splash scheme at Icknield Port Loop and asked to be updated as Portfolio Holder on progress between meetings of the Housing and Land Delivery Board on these important partnerships and endorsed the point made by Cllr Pemberton that the currency of the MoU should not be devalued. Gareth committed to including an update on progress with strategic partnerships at each meeting of the Board.

Councillor Simkins suggested the need to review the Single Commissioning Framework (SCF) so that projects could be delivered quicker for brownfield sites and to ensure that any changes to completion dates were monitored.  The Executive Director of Housing, Property & Regeneration confirmed that this information would be provided in the confidential annex to the Quarterly Report in future.

The Executive Director of Housing, Property and Regeneration reported that some schemes require more intervention and need more flexibility than others e.g. in relation to intervention rates, outputs, availability of revenue funding, but always in compliance with the SCF. WMCA was working hard to ensure that by blending different funds, and working across the region as a whole, resources could be deployed in the most efficient manner within the conditions laid down by government. He was confident that the SCF has been delivering strongly on its key criteria (e.g. affordable housing, design, etc.) but the property landscape has changed since its inception, particularly in relation to Advanced Manufacturing in Construction and zero carbon.  On that basis, he suggested that a targeted review of the SCF around these matters would be beneficial and need not impact on other matters where significant progress is already being achieved.  He added that the SCF has been subjected to a review by Internal Audit.

The Chair considered an analysis needs to be undertaken of sites that have stalled, the parties involved and the reasons for the delays so that lessons could be learnt be learnt. He asked that the Executive Director of Housing, Property and Regeneration report back to the next meeting on sites that been stalled for 12 months or more.

The board noted and supported the need for more Government money to be secured and flexibility on how funding can be deployed for remediation of brownfield sites to meet housing targets especially in the Black Country due to its industrial heritage.  The Director of Housing, Property & Regeneration confirmed that projects can only be funded where they are supported by good business cases so, through the devolution deal, WMCA is asking for additional revenue funding to support this work.  In terms of intervention rates, the board supported the approach which took a regional perspective, balancing the need for higher intervention rates in some parts of the region with lower rates elsewhere.  Having a regional programme of both large sites (e.g. 500+ homes) and smaller sites helps.

The Executive Director of Housing, Property and Regeneration reported that the WMCA was seeking additional funding and flexibility of funding as part of the devolution deal.

Resolved:

1. The positive progress to achieve the Housing and Land Portfolio’s approved Annual Deliverables in 2021/22 and the clear plans in place for progressing the agreed High Level Deliverables work programme during the remainder of 2022 be noted;

2. The key performance highlights set out in section 3 of the report be noted and

3. The positive performance and effective deployment of WMCA’s Devolved Housing and Land funds, illustrated by the Single Commissioning Framework Schemes summarised in Annex 1 to this report (many of these schemes are now in delivery phase having progressed through the end to end SCF process which shows the role of the WMCA in unlocking, accelerating and problem solving on ‘difficult to deliver’ schemes) be noted.