Decision details

Cabinet considered the strategic director’s report that sought approval of a project to accelerate housing growth across the Science Vale area of South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse districts and asked both councils to establish budgets to allow the project to proceed. 

The councils had secured £2.06 million in grant funding from the Large Sites Programme Capacity Fund to help accelerate the delivery of strategic housing sites.  The requirements of the project were that the councils would deliver a 30 per cent increase in the rate of housing delivery across the Science Vale area.  To achieve this, a range of projects were planned to remove barriers to delivery and bring forward swift delivery actions. The programme agreed with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) was flexible and included such activities as:

·        appointing consultants to produce a delivery plan to tackle the causes of under-delivery and to undertake elements of the work that emerged from the plan;

·        appointing a programme manager to drive delivery, plus three staff to bolster planning delivery;

·        specialist advice on section 106 negotiations;

·        specialist assistance to evaluate infrastructure and community needs across Science Vale to provide an evidence base to support negotiations on strategic and local infrastructure needs arising from housing development;

·        consultancy support on land and property negotiations;

·        modelling, design and technical appraisals on infrastructure projects;

·        site and area master planning;

·        marketing campaign for the Science Vale area;

·        legal support to speed up section 106 agreements and to advise on the appropriate actions to bring forward difficult sites. 

The grant of £1.025m for 2013/14 had been received, on the basis set out in the offer letter appended to the report.  However, the council had to demonstrate sufficient progress in accelerating housing delivery to receive the second tranche of funding of £1.035m for 2014/15.  The entire 2013/14 grant must be spent or committed to projects by 31 March 2014.  The grant would be split between the two councils, with this council’s allocation being £500,000 in 2013/14 and £535,000 in 2014/15. 

Cabinet recognised the benefits of the project but accepted that accelerating delivery was a challenge at this time due to slow progress on large strategic sites.  However, Cabinet believed that many of the actions outlined above would make a significant contribution to accelerated housing growth in 2014 and therefore supported the project. 

RECOMMENDED: to Council to

(a)               approve a revenue budget to accelerate housing growth in the Science Vale area, in 2013/14 of £500,000 funded from a £1.025 million capacity fund grant;

(b)               approve a revenue budget, in 2014/15 of £535,000 funded from the second tranche of capacity fund grant;

RESOLVED: subject to Council approving recommendations (a) and (b) above, to:

(c)               approve the project to accelerate housing growth in the Science Vale Growth Area, funded by the DCLG capacity fund:

(d)               authorise the strategic director, in consultation with the head of legal and democratic services, if necessary as an exception to contracts procedure rules, to use the fund to commission and pay for works necessary to deliver the core objectives of the project as set out in the offer letter attached as an appendix to the report; and

(e)               approve South Oxfordshire District Council as the accounting body for the administration of the capacity fund and as the accountable body to DCLG for appropriate use of the fund.