Agenda item

To receive a briefing on the Government’s 2020 Housing Delivery Test and Enfield’s draft Housing Action Plan  (Action Plan to follow)

The scrutiny panel received a presentation on the Government’s Housing Delivery Test from Joanne Drew (Director of Housing and Housing Regeneration).  A briefing paper on the delivery test had been circulated with the agenda. 

To note that the draft housing action plan was not available for this meeting as it was still in the process of being finalised.   

1.            Presentation

·         The Local Plan will set out the long-term vision for good quality housing growth, delivery and supply in the borough.

·         The briefing note circulated with the agenda contains information on the Government’s Housing Delivery Test and how Enfield as a place has performed against this test. 

·         Enfield has delivered an average 56% of the housing against the target over the last 3 years.  As Enfield has failed to meet 75% of their housing targets it has been placed in a category of “presumption in favour of sustainable development”.  Enfield is not alone, eight other boroughs are also in this situation. 

·         Many factors influence housing supply and many are outside the direct control of a local authority.

·         One way to address the need is to directly deliver housing, which the Council is doing through projects such as Meridian Water. 

·         Enfield needs to improve the planning process to make sure that it is as efficient and effective as possible.  They also need to play an enabling role, encouraging good quality proposals. 

·         The housing targets have recently been increased by 500 which means that housing delivery will have to be stepped up significantly. 

·         A new housing action plan is being developed in recognition of the actions that the Council will need to take to increase delivery.

·         There are seven key themes:  ensuring an effective development management process; continuing to embed housing growth and delivery as a key priority of the Council; an intelligence led approach to driving the right solutions; efficient local plan making and driving local supply through infrastructure; continuing to strengthen council led market interventions; proactively pursuing housing development through a range of providers; lobbying government to create the right conditions for development. 

·         Twenty three percent of the supply delivered to date has been as a result of council interventions. The Council role is increasingly important.  Current market conditions are very challenging.  It is also essential to work collaboratively with other sectors including housing associations. 

·         The Council needed to lobby government to create the right conditions for housing supply and provide viable substitutes to home ownership.  Affordable homes are not affordable to Enfield residents without huge discounts. 

·         The Council was also looking to bring empty homes back into use, and was working closely with the GLA on a recovery strategy following the pandemic. 

2.            Questions/Comments

2.1       There are currently 3,000 empty homes in Enfield.  The current target is to bring 60 back into use every year, through an empty homes strategy.  This can involve grants for capital investment which can be recouped through lettings.  Efforts need to be redoubled by applying enforcement techniques and through providing incentives.

2.2       The planning process is under constant review. There are currently two planning committees scheduled every month.  More work needed to be done to shape applications at an earlier stage, to ensure an efficient approval process and to monitor the pipeline more strategically.  More could also be done to monitor the number of applications which have lapsed.  More resources were needed, particularly to provide advice and guidance at the beginning of the process. 

2.3       The consequences for the Council of the presumption in favour of sustainable development have not yet been established.  Currently the Council has only been required to produce quarterly updates to Government.

2.4       The Leader explained the consequences in terms of the broader context.  The Council would lose control if they did not have the new local plan in place.  Just allowing development would create huge risks.

2.5       The Meridian Water project had progressed significantly over the last 18 months. Houses on the first site were under construction and will be ready by 2022.  The infrastructure funding would unlock more housing sites.  A contract to set up a film studio with skills academy had been agreed. 

2.6       The housing targets would still be a huge challenge even if Meridian Water was complete and all the available small sites developed. 

2.7       Concern about the empty homes that were empty for legitimate reasons such as refurbishment and were subject to double council tax bills.  Council tax was one of the tools used to encourage owners to bring property back into use.  The process could be reviewed. 

2.8       There was a perception that it was more difficult and took longer to obtain planning permission in Enfield than in other boroughs and that this could put off prospective developers.  It was acknowledged that there were issues with resourcing in the planning department, although measures were being put in place to improve the situation.  The Council’s funding had been reduced by a quarter and this did have an impact on the ability to respond. It was looking to grant funding and planning fees to fill the gap. 

2.9       The current local plan was now out of date and needed revising.  This was taking place. 

3.            Summing up by the Chair

The chair thanked Joanne Drew for her presentation and noted the comments made on the council tax increases for empty homes and the improvements needed to the planning process.  The issue of housing delivery was something that the panel would keep under review. 

It was agreed to ask officers to bring a report back to the next meeting on the work being done to improve planning processes.