Agenda for MCA - Housing and Infrastructure Board on Thursday, 3rd November, 2022, 2.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: South Yorkshire MCA, 11 Broad Street West, Sheffield, S1 2BQ

Items
No. Item

49.

Welcome and Apologies

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting.

 

Apologies were noted as above.

50.

Declarations of Interest by Individual Members in Relation to any Item of Business on the Agenda

Minutes:

Members declared interests regarding schemes in their own council areas.

 

With regards to Item 7, Cllr Johnson declared an interest as a Member of the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. He remained in the meeting.

51.

Urgent Items / Announcements

Minutes:

None.

52.

Public Questions on Key Decisions

Minutes:

None.

53.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 248 KB

Minutes:

It was noted that the previous meeting had not been quorate and therefore some items had been brought back to the Board for formal approval.

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting on 31 August be approved.

54.

Matters Arising / Action Log pdf icon PDF 310 KB

Minutes:

There were no outstanding items on the Action Log.

 

RESOLVED that the Action Log be noted.

55.

Programme Approvals pdf icon PDF 507 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was informed that approval was being requested for the progression of gainshare funded schemes.

 

The schemes included:

·    The ‘Bentley Flood Alleviation Scheme’ from Strategic Business Case to Business Justification Case with the release of £0.05m development cost funding to Doncaster MBC;

·    The release of £0.30m development funding for three schemes included in the item on ‘Infrastructure Projects – New Pipeline Schemes’;

·    The release of flood Gainshare contingency funding of £0.1m to contribute towards a Water Programme Manager post and a further £0.05m to be used in the development of a flood risk investment tool.

 

RESOLVED that the Board considered and approved:

1.   Progression of “Bentley Flood Alleviation Scheme” project from SBC to BJC and the release of £0.05m of development cost funding to Doncaster Borough Council (DBC);

2.   Release of £0.30m development cost funding for the three project mandates selected for developing their business cases at the Housing and Infrastructure Board meeting in August 2022. These are Fishlake Flood Risk Management Scheme (Doncaster), Worsbrough Reservoir (Barnsley) and Rotherham Renaissance Flood Alleviation Scheme Phase 2G (Rotherham);

3.   Release of £0.15m funding from the Flood Gainshare contingency to contribute towards a programme manager post and development of a flood risk investment fund/GIS dashboard as set out in section 2.3;

  1. Delegated authority be given to the Head of Paid Service in consultation with the Section 73 and Monitoring Officer to enter into legal agreements for the schemes above.

 

56.

Infrastructure Projects - New Pipeline Schemes pdf icon PDF 428 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was presented with a proposal to add the following two new schemes on to the Infrastructure Project Pipeline:

 

·    The Barnsley Civic project was requesting funding of around £1.1m to cover cost escalations and was proposed to be funded from the Gainshare Capital Fund;

·    The Digital Voucher Scheme would commit an initial £0.5m of SYMCA Superfast South Yorkshire ‘clawback’ funding to deliver a local top up voucher scheme.

 

The Board also reconfirmed its support for the schemes added to the Infrastructure and BHF Pipelines at the last meeting.

 

RESOLVED that the Board:

1.      Approved the two schemes listed in paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2 as part of the Infrastructure Project pipeline;

2.      Reconfirmed the Board’s approval for the three flood schemes in paragraph 2.3 as part of the pipeline of flood alleviation and resilience infrastructure;

3.      Reconfirmed the Board’s approval for the two Brownfield Housing Fund schemes in paragraph 2.4 as part of the Brownfield Housing Fund pipeline.

 

57.

Draft South Yorkshire Housing Framework pdf icon PDF 512 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Senior Programme Manager (Development and Planning) introduced the Draft South Yorkshire Housing Framework.

 

The Housing Framework had been further developed since the last meeting, taking the Members’ views into account as well as those of the Mayor, the four Local Authorities and the South Yorkshire Housing Partnership. The Board was invited to comment on the updated draft Framework.

 

The Board welcomed the draft South Yorkshire Housing Framework and observed that it was coming together well.

 

Members provided a range of detailed comments to be taken into account in preparing the final draft Housing Framework which would be brought to the next Board meeting.

 

Members were informed that the Housing Framework was intended to complement existing activity, not to complicate the local planning process. It was recognised that Local Plans should be considered to ensure that there were no areas of potential conflict. It was also acknowledged that existing and emerging Local Authority strategies should be reflected in the Framework to demonstrate its alignment with them. In order to deliver some of the schemes and masterplans, it would be crucial to consider the wider infrastructure.

 

The Board also discussed the lack of affordable housing across the region, how housing could support economic growth and the role of Local Authorities and Housing Associations in the delivery of homes and placemaking.

 

It was highlighted that housing densification can deliver opportunities to reduce energy consumption and transport emissions, and that there are multiple ways to achieve good quality, modern, dense living environments.

 

There was also the prospect of growing the economy around the manufacturing and installation of housing retrofit schemes. It was suggested that the Framework would benefit from further detail regarding the local housing industry, training and skills.

 

Further detail was requested around how the Framework would be delivered and any funding which may be available to assist delivery.

 

The Executive Director of Infrastructure & Place advised that going forward it would be important to narrow the focus of the actions included in the Framework to ensure key priorities were achieved.

 

A project to design a programme to retrofit at scale was in progress and would shortly be presented to the Board.

 

The BHF Open Call had proved successful, and the programme was now up to four times oversubscribed. This would allow the MCA to choose the schemes which best fit its criteria.

 

RESOLVED that the Board endorsed progression of the draft South Yorkshire Housing Framework to next stage of consultation and drafting.

 

58.

South Yorkshire Electric Vehicle Programme pdf icon PDF 648 KB

Minutes:

The Board was presented with an update on the implementation of the South Yorkshire Electric Vehicle (EV) Programme.

 

Following the award of funding to support the provision of EV infrastructure in South Yorkshire, the MCA had been working with the Local Authorities to deliver a programme of installations across region.

 

The programme was to be implemented over the next few months and was progressing well. The chargepoints would start becoming available for use by early December with the project completed by the target of March 2023. The programme was anticipated to deliver 184 chargepoints which would offer charging for a maximum of 191 vehicles.

 

In response to questions around costs the Senior Development Manager advised that a change request had been approved to exchange the model of chargepoint where the one specified was not available. Due to supply issues a number of the double chargepoint units had also been replaced with single units.

 

RESOLVED that the South Yorkshire Electric Vehicle Programme progress update report be noted.

 

59.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 115 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the Forward Plan be noted.

60.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

The Co-Chair provided a brief update on the state of the housing industry.

 

As there was no other business to discuss, the Chair thanked all for their attendance and closed the meeting.