Agenda and minutes

The Chair, Councillor Margaret Greer welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

Apologies had been received from Councillors Chinelo Anyanwu (Substitute Cllr Claire Stewart) and Mahmut Aksanoglu. Apologies had also been received from Sarah Cary, Executive Director Place and Joanne Drew, Director of Housing and Regeneration.

Members of the Council are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to the items on the agenda.

NOTED

1.    Councillor Tim Leaver declared a non-pecuniary interest as he was the Chair of Housing Gateway Limited, a Council Company.

2.    Councillor Claire Stewart declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 6 (Business Support) as the Cabinet Member mentioned in the report was a relative of hers. She would leave the meeting after the first item (item 5) had been heard.

The Chair to introduce the purpose of the meeting.

NOTED

1.    The purpose of the meeting is to look at the Annual Review of Housing Development which will be a presentation from the Head of Housing Development (Nnenna Urum-Eke) and a report regarding Business Support from the Head of Knowledge & Insights (Sam Buckley) and the Head of Economic Development (Bob Doyle).

To agree the minutes of the Regeneration & Economic Development Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 24 June 2021.

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 June 2021 were received and agreed as a correct record. 

To receive a presentation from the Head of Development, Nnenna Urum-Eke.

The scrutiny panel received a presentation from Nnenna Urum-Eke (Head of Development) updating members on the Annual Review of the Housing Development Pipeline.

1.            Presentation

During the presentation, Nnenna Urum-Eke highlighted the following: 

·         The Council’s housing programme was on track to build more than 3500 new council led homes by 2030.

·         To date 1047 affordable units are being committed to be delivered through the GLA’s Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) 2016-23.

·         In the last year the Council are on -site or being completed 366 units and with a further 669 units on site by 2022.

·         It was announced recently, that the Council had received an affordable housing allocation from the GLA of £167M to deliver 1,119 units. This was the second highest allocation among local authorities and the 5^th highest funding allocation overall, as detailed in the table within the presentation.

·         Current market conditions, impacting the programme over the past 18 months, were reported including; the pandemic, Brexit, climate change and the Suez Canal back log. The market therefore at present is quite volatile both in terms of supply of goods and labour. The impact would be higher costs and delays to the delivery times, to the programme due to supply issues and contractor uncertainty. Despite this the Council has still been able to deliver achieving 336 new homes on site during a difficult period.

·         The programme is not purely through direct delivery, the Council are working with partners and are acquiring units from the market as well as delivering itself. This was a balanced approach insulating some issues going on in the market.

·         Partnership schemes (as detailed in the presentation) were reported against sites at New Avenue, Ladderswood, Alma Estate and Electric Quarter, providing progress details and completion time estimates/predictions.

·         Direct Delivery schemes (as detailed in the presentation) were reported against Newstead House, Maldon Road, Gatward Green and Bury Street West, providing progress details and completion time estimates/predictions.

·         The Council are also providing over 669 new homes on site through direct delivery and acquisitions by 2022. Details provided for these sites at Exeter Road, Upton & Raynham, Dandridge Close and Bullsmoor Lane, including the number of units and timescales.

·         The Council had also acquired 240 council homes as detailed in the presentation regarding Meridian Water in partnership with Mistry.

·         Sites relating to funding in relation to the recent grant received from the GLA. The Joyce & Snells direct delivery scheme had been allocated £54M to progress phases on the site and to deliver around 2,000 new homes. The Council are also looking to provide infill schemes on the Alma Estate looking at garage sites around the estate (on Main Avenue, Bush Hill Park) providing 86 units around this scheme.

·         Partnership delivery scheme at the Osward & Newdale site with RP partner to deliver 438 new homes (the Council retaining 156).

·         Two sites acquired, relating to small build direct delivery, at South Place in Ponders End and Hyde Park Avenue in Bush Hill Park using SME consultants and contractor.

·         120 units delivered through  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive a report on Business Support delivered through Covid and advise on plans moving forward.

At this point, Cllr Claire Stewart left the meeting and took no further part in the proceedings.

The scrutiny panel received a report from Bob Doyle (Head of Economic Development, Regeneration Planning & Program Management) and Sam Buckley (Head of Knowledge & Insights) updating members on Business Support: Covid and Post Covid.

1.            Presentation

The following was highlighted by Sam Buckley and Bob Doyle: 

a.    Most of the financial support schemes were now closed apart from the Additional Restrictions Grant which is still ongoing.

b.     In terms of financial support to date, the council has received financial support to distribute to local businesses through direct grants and business rates relief as detailed on pages 7-8 of the report.

c.    The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) is a special amount of money given to Local authorities by the Government, who were asked to come up with their own scheme to distribute funds through direct grants to businesses. The council ran an application scheme process and were successful in spending £9.6M out to approximately 1800 businesses. Many small home- based businesses and freelancers benefitted from this scheme ARG.

d.    A further £2.3M in further grants was received from central government and the council must now devise a plan to distribute this extra money to support businesses like nurseries - early year’s settings, dry cleaners and garages as key sectors that had suffered through the pandemic. Once agreed, a formal proposal would need to go to EMT and Cabinet. Also, looking to build on the work that has been successful for the Council i.e. Month of Sundays, Festivals and town centre regeneration. Assessment is made against every idea against government guidance and the Council’s objectives. Everything that is spent requires accountability, is data driven and evidence led with requires tangible outcomes.

e.    The Council were now in a position to offer 5 sustained business support schemes. The Council have partnered with the Federation of Small Businesses. This has already started, and the aim is to sign up 1000 small businesses and to give them access to a range of business support/guidance. Five other London Boroughs are now imitating the Enfield model.

f.     The Council are also in partnership with Enterprise Enfield on an e-business support programme to help businesses enhance their digital capabilities. This will help over 550 small businesses over the next 3 years.

g.    Through the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding the Council proposes 3 new business support programmes. Two providers had already been chosen. The 3 programmes will serve:

·         scale ups (Business in the Community) – now engaged with 500 participants on this programme and hopefully creating many more ne businesses over the next 2 years.

·         start-ups (Business School) – to help 1000 new businesses over the next 2 years.

·         creative businesses (Business School) – Aiming to reach 500 business owners over the next 2 years.

2.    Questions/Comments

a.  Referring to point 16 (bullet point 6) of the report regarding youth unemployment and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). This had started  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To note that the next Regeneration & Economic Development Scrutiny Panel meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 30 November 2021.

NOTED the date of the next meeting:

·        Tuesday 30 November 2021

Tuesday 30 November 2021

·                     Meridian Water Masterplan

·                     Planning Improvement Plan