Agenda item
Local Authority Housing fund (LAHF) Round 3 funding
Minutes:
Members considered proposals for Local Authority Housing fund (LAHF) Round 3 funding. In December 2022, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched the Local Authority Housing Fund. This was a £500 million capital fund for local authorities in England to obtain accommodation for families with housing needs who had arrived in the UK after fleeing the war in Ukraine, and families on Afghan resettlement and relocation schemes. The reason for this was to help ensure that those communities who wished to actively support those in central resettlement schemes were supported in creating extra capacity, rather than providing from within current capacity.
This was the third potential tranche of funding that the Council applied for and as with the previous two rounds, it had very specific conditions attached to it. The properties were to be made available in line with the timescales set out by the previous government for resettlement schemes, and then revert to general usage, becoming part of the Council’s overall housing stock.
Last year, as part of the second round of the LAHF project, the Council was awarded £694,000. The usage of this was approved by Cabinet members on the 16th November 2023, and the Council had been awarded £619,500 as part of the Government’s £450m two-year expansion to the scheme, which aimed to provide local authorities with a longer-term pipeline of support and to unlock more new supply and developments.
Due to Cabinet’s very proactive acquisitions programme, the Council had been able to secure the four properties that the funding required of the Council through the criteria for round three. These homes had been secured through Vistry at Westwood Point. Four properties were now being proposed for purchasing. These were; three x 3-bedroom properties (one for TA and two medium-sized resettlement properties) and one x 4-bedroom property (again, for the resettlement element). These properties were being acquired from Vistry at Westwood Point.
This was also the location of the fourteen properties acquired by the Council with LAHF round 1 & 2 funding. The Council had a strong working relationship with Vistry and was confident that these properties would be high quality and would serve both the initial purpose required by the funding criteria and then ultimately be good assets to transfer into the Council’s HRA stock.
Discussion had been conducted on the mechanisms of the Local Authority Housing Fund many times within council; and as indicated before, the use of this fund allowed for the creation of a virtuous circle. The Council was being externally funded to provide local housing that would not only serve to support those fleeing conflict, but would also in the long term become part of its general housing stock. Both morally and financially choosing to use this funding made absolute sense and Cabinet felt assured that this initiative was well supported by Council. Members supported this programme because it provided support for both those fleeing conflict and local residents.
Councillor Whitehead proposed, Councillor Duckworth seconded and Cabinet agreed that:
1. The Council proceeds with the acquisition of the four homes at Westwood Point - being acquired through Vistry for £1,255,000;
2. The properties are provided as per the LAHF Round 3 funding criteria, i.e. one for temporary accommodation and three for resettlement purposes.
Supporting documents: