Eastleigh Borough Council Cabinet Meeting

There were no declarations of interest in relation to items of business on the agenda.

RESOLVED -

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 July 2024 be agreed as a correct record.

There was no public participation on this occasion.

Issues

Committees can refer items to Cabinet under the Council’s Constitution. (Paper 5)

Considerations

Cabinet must consider any recommendations made by Committee’s as part of their decision-making process.

RESOLVED –

That Cabinet agreed the following recommendations from the Audit and Resources Committee:

(1)  That a report containing lessons learned from phase one be presented to the Audit and Resources Committee before the second phase of the development;

(2)  That verbal updates regarding the One Horton Heath project come to every A&R meeting with written updates, at least quarterly, to ensure transparency;

(3)  That the Committee receive regular updates on the status of the school provision as part of the regular updates;

(4)  The Committee urge Cabinet to emphasise the importance of liaison with government regarding grants;

(5)  The committee would like to understand the Council’s method for delivering social and affordable housing on the OHH development once grant details are known; and

(6)  Cabinet should also be made aware of the risk that proposed changes to designs at the Lower Acre, should the contract be awarded, will result in the need for changes to the planning approval. This is considered by the project team to be a minimal risk as the changes will adopt a more traditional approach to design and will result in a reduced building footprint.

Issue

As reported to both the Audit and Resources Committee and Cabinet in December 2023, with the majority of work on infrastructure for the wider One Horton Heath scheme either complete or under way, the Council is in a position to begin building homes at the Lower Acre. The delivery of this housing will demonstrate the Council’s commitment to providing much needed multi-tenured housing in the Borough, in line with the national aspirations of the Government. (Paper 6)

Consideration

Creating homes and communities is identified as one of the key themes within the Council’s Corporate Plan (2023-26) and this includes ensuring that there is a planned housing supply to meet residents’ requirements for new housing in the Borough. In addition, the Corporate Strategy for Housing (February 2018) also explains that the Council is a housing delivery enabler, and the Eastleigh Homes Delivery Strategy (December 2020) provided further direction for the Council’s Strategic Housing Programme activity from 2021.

RESOLVED –

That Cabinet:

(1)  Considered the evidence, financial information and balance of risk set out within this report;

(2)  Agreed to award the main residential contract for delivery of the Lower Acre to the sole bidder;

(3)  approved an increase in the capital budget of £16,312,440, related directly to the tender and increased financing costs, to be funded by future scheme surpluses;

(4)  approved £2,069,360 to fund the increased costs of the Electric Vehicle Strategy, to be funded by future scheme surpluses;

(5)  acknowledged the intent, should the contract be awarded, to make post-contract variations that could realise savings from value engineering opportunities including varying Parcel 1A to facilitate redesign of apartment blocks A2 and A3; and to work towards agreement of price for parcel 2 (49 dwellings) by the end of October 2024 to ensure continuity of output;

(6)  acknowledged that, should the contract be awarded, confirmation of the continuation with the selected contractor for future phases 2, 3, 3A, 4, 4A and the varied 1A will be dependent on a future Cabinet approval; and

(7)  reallocated the developer contribution of £20,062,156 earmarked as part of the One Horton Heath outline planning application for primary school education needs as a capital budget to enable the self-delivery of the school to continue.

[Note: Councillors thanked staff for a very detailed report.]

RESOLVED -

(1)  That, in pursuance of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they are likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act; and

(2)  That, in pursuance of the public interest test, the public interest in disclosing the information contained in the following item of business was outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the exemption.