Agenda item

C Blackburn introduced a paper which asked the Board to receive the South Yorkshire Housing Prospectus and consider further collaboration with Housing Association partners to develop related proposals and opportunities that will deliver greater housing outcomes across South Yorkshire.

The draft South Yorkshire Housing Prospectus, attached at Appendix A, had been developed by Housing Associations through the South Yorkshire Housing Providers Forum.

The Prospectus set out five offers that had been developed to align with the housing priorities of the regional authorities and the SYMCA, and were noted as follows:

1. New Affordable Homes

2. Roadmap to Net Zero Carbon

3. Housing and health

4. Economic growth and employment

5. Preventing Homelessness

P Common, M Harrison and N Atkin presented the Board with background information to developing the Prospectus; details of the Housing Providers Forum; examples of collaborative work undertaken in the region; and an overview of the South Yorkshire Housing Prospectus.

The Board noted that the Prospectus would aim to be finalised and signed off by the Housing Associations over the next few weeks with the final Prospectus aiming to be launched in February 2022.

The Board were also informed that the intention was for the MCA Executive to  work with the Housing Associations, local authorities, Homes England  and other partners to explore  combined capacity and opportunities to deliver the Prospectus’ five ‘offer’ proposals, including  the potential for  a shared housing development pipeline.     A progress delivery update report would aim to be prepared and presented on an annual basis.

The Board was invited to consider and provide comments on the Prospectus and how it could support housing and economic growth across South Yorkshire which align with the priorities of the SYMCA. 

The Chair thanked P Common, M Harrison and N Atkin for their presentations and invited questions from the Board.

Key points arising from Members’ questions and discussion are summarised below:

·        The Board welcomed the development of the Prospectus and were supportive of the proposed approach for building collaborative capability to achieve and deliver the ambitions set out in the Prospectus.

·        It was queried how each local authority could provide its input to help address homelessness and social injustice. 

·        A discussion took place around local authority funding pressures and the significant differences in the levels of Homes England funding that Greater Manchester received in comparison to South Yorkshire. 

·        There was a shared agreement that there needed to be more collective working and coordinated approached when new funding opportunities were launched so we are in a stronger position to secure additional funding for housing in South Yorkshire.

·        The Board considered that work needed to take place to ascertain what affordable homes are required in different areas and sites across the region.  The Board said that there was also a need to provide more housing for single people and larger families. 

·        To achieve Net Zero targets, the Board considered that, we should build on the existing MCA policy for housing and seek even higher environment standards in future new build homes.

·        In relation to health and housing, the Board recommended that it should be quantified within the Prospectus what needs to be achieved to help improve people’s health and demonstrate more robustly the links between health and housing and the potential costs to the NHS; for example, the impact that cold and damp properties have on a person’s health.

·        The Chair queried why there was no reference in the Prospectus about collaboration with private sector housing companies in relation to affordable housing schemes. 

In response, N Atkin said that the next steps would include also engaging better with house builders and developers, but this could be more clearly set out in the final Prospectus eg. to give greater assurance of the supply of new low carbon, affordable homes. 

·        The Board noted that there was work to be undertaken by officers to pull together all collective housing goals and targets as part of the development of the MCA’s Housing Framework which would inform this work.

RESOLVED – That the Board welcomes the South Yorkshire Housing Prospectus and agreed to consider the ‘offers’ by Housing Associations for further collaboration with the MCA and local authority partners to deliver better housing outputs.