Agenda item

The Board was asked to consider the full approval and award of grant for 3 schemes and was updated on the progress of the projects identified for acceleration at the previous meeting.

(The Private Sector Co-Chair left the meeting.)

The first scheme to be considered was Blue Mans Way, which sought £1.3m of Brownfield Housing Fund (BHF) monies towards an overall investment of around £13m. 76 new affordable housing units were planned to be delivered on a brownfield site located in Rotherham.  The Board agreed the proposal to support the scheme.

(The Private Sector Co-Chair re-joined the meeting.)

The remaining 2 schemes considered for approval were:

·       West Bar – Sheffield City Council

The project aimed to regenerate 7.33 acres of brownfield site to deliver a mixed use district to include grade A office space, new apartments and public realm. The £3m Gainshare funding was required to enable the development to be implemented at a high standard.

The Assistant Director of Procurement, Contracts & Programme Controls noted that this project would be co-funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC), information which had previously been under embargo. However, as the funding had to be spent by the end of the month, the Board was also asked to authorise the transfer of the conditions into the contract.

·       Sky House, Devonshire Quarter

£0.75m of BHF was requested to cover a viability gap in an overall investment of £8.87m to deliver 60 residential units in the southwest of Sheffield City Centre.

Members were also updated on the progress of the schemes identified for acceleration at the previous meeting (in addition to West Bar):

·       The Market Gate Bridge (BMBC) project had been approved at the MCA Board on 6 March.

·       Also at the MCA Board, the grant award decision of the Doncaster Waterfront and Rotherham Libraries & Markets schemes had been delegated to the Head of Paid Service in conjunction with the Co-Chairs of the Housing and Infrastructure Board due to the timings of the meetings.  The Assistant Director of Procurement, Contracts & Programme Controls provided a verbal update on the two schemes for the Board’s information.

The Board noted that both the Blue Mans Way and the Devonshire Quarter BHF schemes were the first two schemes brought forward from the recent Brownfield Housing Fund Open Call. Members thanked the SYMCA Executive Team for accelerating the business case process, taking these schemes from pipeline adoption to funding approval within 3 months.

RESOLVED that the Board:

1. Approve £3m grant award to Sheffield City Council for the “West Bar” project.
2. Approve £1.3m grant award to Great Places Housing Association for the “Blue Mans Way, Catcliffe” project.
3. Approve £0.75m grant award to Sky House Co Ltd for the “Sky House – Devonshire Quarter” project.
4. Approve delegated authority be granted to the Head of Paid service in consultation with the Section 73 Officer and the Monitoring Officer to enter into legal agreement for the above schemes at points 1, 2 and 3.

5.    Note that the projects detailed at para. 2.4, where funding was available from Government on a short time frame, were considered at the MCA on 6 March. The Market Gate Bridge (Barnsley) project was approved, and the Rotherham Libraries and Markets and Waterfront (Doncaster) projects approval decisions were delegated to the Head of Paid Service in conjunction with the Co-chairs of the relevant thematic Board.