Private Sector Forum meeting
16th February 2011
Council Chamber, Carrick House, Pydar Street, Truro, TR1 1EB
Minutes
Present:
David Stein – Acorn Property Group / Shaun Stapleton – Kier WesternMichael Griffin – Barratt Homes / Tim Bennetts – Lowena Homes Ltd
Andrew Wiles – Bibio / Simon Williams – Percy Williams
Andy Rigby – Bibio / Imran Mubeen – Pricewaterhouse Coopers
Andy Golay – Cornwall Council / Joe Reeves – Pricewaterhouse Coopers
Jody Jeffrey – Cornwall Council / Jason Mitchell – Robertson Developments
Kevin Lavery – Cornwall Council / Jill Witcomb – Rural Foundations
Tom Flanagan – Cornwall Council / Nick Witcomb – Rural Foundations
Clare Salmon – Cornwall Council / Andrew Selleck – Selleck Nicholls Ltd
Louise Dwelly – Cornwall Council / Robert Alford – Strongvox UK
Mark Kaczmarek – Councillor CC / Graham Clark – Sunnybanks Homes
Mike Clayton – Councillor CC / Ben Couch – Taylor Lewis
Phil Mason – Cornwall Council / Isaac Kibblewhite – Taylor Wimpey
Peter Marsh – Cornwall Council / Paul Hardisty – Quality Social Housing Co.
Carly Johnson – Cornwall Council / William Thomas – Quality Social Housing Co.
James Welch – Cornwall Council / Greg Oldrieve – Vickery Holman
Michael Jordan – CSL Group / Bob Taylor – Wainhomes
Martin Page – First Step Homes / Peter Prescott – Westco Properties
Stephen Teagle – Galliford Try / John Wombwell – Wombwell Homes
Nigel Gilmore – Gilmore Planning Services / Mike Ray
Apologies:
Andrew Lopes – Bibio / Andy Parsons – Lowena Homes LtdMark Wilson – Bibio / David Worlledge – Lowena Homes Ltd
Richard Connolly – DCHA / Andrew Chandler – Taylor Lewis
John Archer – Consultant / Colin Palmer – Taylor Wimpey
Stefan Klimek – First Step Homes / Dave Matthews – Taylor Wimpey
Stephen Lodge – Guinness Hermitage / Anthony Eke – Vickery Holman
Darren Healey – Highgrove Homes / Damien Burley – Walker Developments
David Pengelly - Leadbitter / Jonathon Pascoe – Walker Developments
1. / Introductions and apologies
2. / Welcome from the Chair Michael Griffin (Barratts/Chair HBF South West Planning)
Michael Griffin (MG) welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked Kevin Lavery (KL) for attending. The aim was to have lots of interaction and input during the meeting so questions and contributions were to be encouraged. MG also asked the group to think about what they would like to be discussed in more detail at the next meeting.
a) Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes of the last meeting were approved.
b) Actions from last meeting – DPD and webpage update
Louise Dwelly (LD) confirmed that Cornwall Council was launching a secure website for members of the group to access minutes and links etc. In the future members of the group will be able to post information that they think is relevant by registering.
LD mentioned that, as agreed, the influencing policy workshops had taken place and thanked everyone who had attended. A report will be going to Planning Policy Advisory Panel this month reporting back on the outcomes. The panel was also seeking contributions for a developer led workshop on viability. The next step will be to commission a sustainability appraisal.
3. / Introduction from Cornwall Council Chief Executive, Kevin Lavery
KL gave an overview of the Cornwall Council’s current position. After 2 years, the Council was coming through the challenging task of bringing seven authorities into one. Cornwall Council inherited serious performance problems, in some areas as well as financial challenges. KL confirmed that £170m savings for the next year have been signed off which is very significant and had been very challenging. Cornwall Council is the first in the country to set a budget and has therefore made savings earlier.
KL stated that between Cornwall Council forming in April 2009 and June 2009 there had been a vacuum with no Councillors. Now there is a large Council of 123 Members of which 99 are new.
Cornwall Council has shown significant service improvements and is facing up to financial issues well ahead of other authorities and therefore protecting front line services as much as possible. KL stated that Cornwall Council is really positive for two reasons: 1) because of our unitary status which gives us many more opportunities and 2) because of the politics, with 3 Conservative and 3 Liberal Democrats, with a voice in the coalition. Opportunities have also arisen from European funding, for example the combined universities and the superfast broadband.
What’s emerging is a very positive vision for a Big Cornwall. Cornwall Council can accommodate cuts because of the size of the organisation and also improve on the previous authorities’ performance. Savings can be identified by rationalising office space and encouraging home working which means that office sites may be coming up for sale at a reasonable price.
KL confirmed that work is going on to look at working across the public services i.e. Cornwall Council joining up care and health and making efficiencies by sharing back offices. The aim is to create revenue surpluses which can be re-invested in a strategic investment fund for Cornwall. Cornwall Council needs to start thinking of itself as a small state government and is looking to be a commissioning Council. He saw the opportunity for double devolution, with the man in Whitehall making fewer decisions for Cornwall and Cornwall Council allowing Parish and Town Councils to be able to make decisions too.
Savings have been front loaded which makes financial sense but also makes managerial sense, although the next 12 months will be hard. Public service workers are very realistic and, after a ballot, have gone beyond a pay freeze which has enabled £13m to be taken out of the pay bill each year.
KL confirmed that he wanted a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which is business led with public sector support. KL confirmed that he would be involved in the recruitment process for the Chair of the LEP who he hoped would be in place by the end of march. The key will be to find a good Chair and four or five great individuals as board members who are going to make a difference.
KL mentioned that the Planning and Regeneration Service is really making progress and that the service didn’t have a great starting point. The LDF/Core Strategy is essential and being progressed. The Council needs to address the need for housing expansion in Truro and a master plan for Falmouth Harbour. KL confirmed that he wanted to be ambitious with Planning and Regeneration and to create greater certainty over planning applications to save money.
KL stated that it had been disappointing when the PFI scheme for Cornwall had been stopped but that there was still £15m worth of land assets that could be used for development. KL stated that he was looking for funding options for these land assets and was open to options.
Questions:
Andrew Wiles (AW) from Bibio – Are there any plans for Cornwall Council to take on any of the responsibilities of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)?
KL stated that the Government had not asked Cornwall Council to take on any of the responsibilities of the HCA. We should be telling the HCA what our priorities are and then we can have a clear view of how to move forward.
Tom Flanagan (TF) stated that the HCA’s responsibilities were not yet clear, but they would be very thinly spread with staffing reductions. The new SW region was being extending to Oxford and the Exeter office closing. We should therefore develop our own vision and take it to them.
Graham Clark (GC) from Sunnybanks Homes – Development has always been difficult in Cornwall. What are your thoughts on this and why do the multiplier effects of the benefits of house building always seem to be lost in the argument?
KL stated that when he worked in Newcastle he encountered the same problem and this is not what we want. We want Cornwall to be open for business and to see expansion which can be achieved by putting our money where our mouth is. To enable this, we need a proper planning framework and to change the culture of some members of planning committees.
KL confirmed that work is ongoing to get the planning system right, we would like to minimise costs by letting developers know what will work and what won’t. There is still some way to go and if developers are having problems then please let us know so that we can deal with them.
Nigel Gilmore (NG) from Gilmore Planning Services – There is a positive attitude with officers and leading Members but there are difficulties around committee resolutions and the legal process.
KL stated that a possible resolution to problems with the legal process could be to include legal in the fast track planning service.
Phil Mason (PM) stated that he accepted the comments but stated that a lot of work had been done to fix the problems, now it was about promoting a culture change.
GC from Sunnybanks Homes – One of the biggest issues can be discharging planning conditions so banks won’t lend until this has been completed.
PM agreed to update on this later in the meeting.
Bob Taylor (BT) from Wainhomes – Could Cornwall Council provide a standardisation of S106 requirements especially for affordable housing? A basic form could be used that has some flexibility.
LD stated that there is a standard S106 template for affordable housing.
MG from Barratt Homes – Bigger schemes require infrastructure could there be any funding for this?
KL stated that Cornwall Council would love to have more control over the A30 so that we could increase capacity. If there’s something in it for us then Cornwall Council could provide funding for infrastructure, we would approach this in a commercial way to see if it was viable.
4. / Presentations:
Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ (PwC) work on future delivery options for Cornwall
Questions:
· AW from Bibio – Rather than one solution, was there scope to propose a mix of delivery options for different types of land.
PwC stated that this work was only looking at specific sites. There would inevitably be other delivery solutions.
· MG from Barratt Homes – There is talk about de-risking land but actually the risk can be in finding end users.
There was agreement on this point. This was a broader issue than the model but council owned land could enable flexibility on the mix of tenures.
· BT from Wainhomes – Is it the aspiration of the Council to own more housing.
Yes, the Council manages 10,000 units and could manage more. However, this would depend on whether it’s possible for the Council to borrow money within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).
· Andrew Selleck from Selleck Nicholls Ltd – Are there any legislative issues affecting these options.
PwC stated that this would depend on which option was looked at. There were likely to be tax, legal and procurement issues with all, but could be resolved. Some procurement regime would be required but this might be done through an existing framework.
· TF stated that there was a need to think about infrastructure investments to remove constraints on the land and that there was the possibility of council support for homebuyers to de-risk.
PwC confirmed that new forms of financing need to be explored further.
· GC from Sunnybanks Homes – When talking about de-risking land it is important to remember contaminated land as this is problem in Cornwall.
Cornwall REIT proposal (Quality Social Housing Company)
Questions:
· MG from Barratt Homes - Is the Cornwall REIT proposal compliant with affordable housing policy and acceptable to the Council?
LD stated that on targeted sites there are two different requirements; social housing and intermediate housing. Currently this would satisfy the Intermediate housing definition in Cornwall. In addition, with the Government moving to affordable rent product, this would satisfy the affordable rent product if and when this became part of planning policy. In terms of the concept, it was likely to work differently in different localities. The 5 year minimum period meant that it would need to be a home where people want to stay longer term. QSHC confirmed that this proposal has been accepted for S106 agreements in other areas.
· ST from Galliford Try - The main issue is the speed with which Cornwall could procure this.
LD stated that her team had been working in close collaboration with Housing colleagues to look at different rents that people are paying in each area.
5. / HCA investment packages and affordable rent product
LD stated that the Government has launched an investment framework requiring RPs to submit funding bids for 4 year programmes. These were based an the affordable rent product and charging higher (80% rents) on relets to raise additional investment for new build. The deadline was May and developers were encouraged to talk to RPs about any 106 sites likely to come forward in that timescale.
6. / Localism: Priority parish work and call for land
LD stated that her team had been working with rural parishes to develop a more proactive approach to delivering rural sites, rather than the exceptions site route. Jody Jeffrey from the West Team would speak on progress to date.
Jody Jeffrey (JJ) explained that historically affordable housing officers could sit back and take a reactive position to exceptions site developments. But this had not delivered effectively for Cornwall. The Council were now developing a proactive approach. This would involve rural calls for land and planners within the affordable housing service available to appraise sites. The call for land helped identify more than one site to keep down hope value and this could be run with the Council’s support for cross subsidy sites which ensured affordable homes were funded without public subsidy.
Andy Golay (AG) introduced himself and stated that he had come from a planning officer’s background and had seen the change from development control to development management. AG mentioned the preparation of site specific Development Briefs and confirmed that these documents will provide a fundamental for developers but they would also be promoting site opportunities where there was parish support. AG mentioned that the affordable housing team were also producing a tool kit for priority parishes which can be adapted to meet the needs of the time.
LD stated that there are 30 priority parishes across Cornwall and that in the Helston and the Lizard areas housing need is about 500 households. The scale of housing requirements per parish is between 6 and 20 houses. LD confirmed that she would add lists of priority parishes onto the secure website.
7. / Council assets disposal (Peter Marsh, Head of Property)
Peter Marsh (PM2) gave a presentation on council assets disposals including the forthcoming sale of the former Richard Lander School site.
8. / Planning Service update (Phil Mason, Head of Planning)
PM gave a picture of the direction of travel for planning policy and stated that P&R had inherited patchy and sometimes very old planning policy. PM confirmed that P&R would be moving away from formal site allocations or development boundaries. The focus would be on securing a supply of sites.
Consultation on the scale and distribution of housing in Cornwall would be taking place over the next couple of months. P&R are also looking to strengthen their links to localism and helping communities to shape their own areas. The Council however was sending out a clear message that Localism didn’t mean the right to say no. We are not going to have the certainty of lines on maps, so we will need to work with each place to work out how good development can be achieved. For example in Truro we will have more freedom because we won’t be tied to certain land options.
Questions:
· BT from Wainhomes – The problem with this approach is that with big schemes millions of pounds are invested just to get to the planning application stage and without the certainty of an allocation in a development plan you are asking for a big leap of faith from the developer.
PM stated that it would require developers and P&Rto work far earlier and closer together to generate clearer support and more certainty.
· AS from Selleck Nicholls Ltd – Applauded de-centralisation, but it is scary to put decisions into the hands of the communities as it can be very easy for one person to dominate the process and this won’t support development.
PM stated that localism isn’t about saying no – it’s about saying yes. This is not easy in some places but broadly there has been support. PM also confirmed that spatial documents will propose the level of development that’s needed and then it can be decided at a local level how to make it work.
· BT from Wainhomes – Will there still be a 5 year land supply?
PM confirmed that there would be.
9. / Date of next meeting and proposed agenda items.
Wednesday 13th July 2011, 14:00 – 17:00
Carrick Council Chamber, Carrick House, Truro
Agenda - TBC
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