Private Sector Developers’ Forum meeting

2nd December 2015

Council Chamber, Carrick House, Truro

Minutes

Present:

Michael Griffin (Chair) / MA Griffin Associates
Morwenna Milburn (minutes) / Cornwall Council (Affordable Housing)
Louise Dwelly / Cornwall Council (Affordable Housing)
Nigel Doyle / Cornwall Council (Development Management)
Sharon Bundy / Cornwall Council (Highways)
Paul Britton / Homes and Communities Agency
Gwenda Beckley / Help to Buy South West
Graham Clark / Sunnybank Homes
Simon Caklais / Gilbert & Goode
Tony Bowden / Gilbert & Goode
Alan Green / Ocean Group
Alison Johns / Ocean Group
Steve Smith / Ed&B
Richard Abbott / Pensans Homes & Built4U (SW) Ltd.
Dave Stein / Acorn Blue
Stuart Brereton / Acorn Blue
Peter Crawford / Wainhomes
Kathryn Pennington / DCH Group
Ben Couch / Taylor Lewis
Russell Dodge / BLS Ltd.
Shaun Brown / Galliford Try
Marc Thompson / Galliford Try
Hollie Nicholls / Laurence Associates
Greg Oldrieve / Vickery Holman
Stephen Maycock / Vickery Holman
Jason Mitchell / Robertson Developments
Damian Burley / Walker Associates
Simon Williams / Percy Williams
Diarmad Perry / Horizon Homes
Introductions and apologies
Welcome from the Chair Michael Griffin (Chair HBF South West)
Michael welcomed attendees to the Forum. Apologies were received from John Wombwell, Jon Sawyer, Versha Koria, Caroline Wheeleker, Shaun Stapleton, Tim Walmsley, Anthony Bassett, Ron Ley, Tim Bennett and Nathan Davis
2. Matters arising from meeting held 16.09.15
The minutes were agreed and will be published on the Council’s website.
The meeting regarding contaminated land had gone ahead. The meeting confirmed that developments did have to operate within Government threshold. However, the Contaminated Land Forum is understood to be drawing up a methodology on the guidelines which might support a more positive approach. Alison Johns offered to circulate information about the PBEC test and arsenic levels. ACTION AJ
3. Presentation from BT Openreach (Julian Cowans and Dave Linton)
Julian Cowans and Dave Linton attended to explain to the Forum about a forthcoming new sites process which will govern the way developers contract with Openreach to install new broadband connections. A commercial arrangement willbe made between Developers and BT Openreach under the ‘New Sites Process’ was due to roll out from January 2016. The Forum requested Open Reach’s attendance at the next meeting once this process is in place. ACTION MM
In the meantime Dave Linton is happy to deal with any queries and can be contacted on
3. Update on Development Management – Nigel Doyle, Assistant Head of Planning and Regeneration, Cornwall Council
1)Local Plan – the Inspector has proposed that affordable housing targets be varied across 5 value. This will have significant weight in decision making. The Council will be consulting shortly on a number of focused changes include an increase in the housing target to 52,500 with a change to the distribution. All details are continually being updated on the Council’s web pages.The examination is due to be re-convened in mid May.
2)Neighbourhood Plans – 79 currently progressed , all at various stages of the process.
3)The Planning Peer Challenge was completed with thanks to the forum for their contribution to the process. A number of recommendations have been made, especially in relation to the operation of the committees. A full report is due by the end of December.
4)Spending Review Consultation – a consultation about the returning of fees if applications are not determined in 13 weeks is currently being planned. A paper is being put forward by the Council and ND is happy to share this with developers. This will be discussed at the next forum. ACTION MM
4. Highways, update on s.278 proposal (Sharon Bundy)
The proposal is still with the Portfolio Holder, Bert Biscoe. A decision is expected early 2016. ACTION MG to write to Cllr Biscoe, reiterating the Forum’s support for the approach. .
5. Cornwall Council s.106 Legal issues
Tim Walmsley was unable to attend but reported the following:
“I have undertaken the bench marking exercise I promised which has showed that having 3 firms on the panel (DWF, Foot Anstey & Michelmores) does seem to be resulting in lower costs being charged to developers. I am unable to provide specifics for obvious commercial reasons. In addition, during the period from April, when the new panel was selected, we have not (nor have the firms involved) received any adverse feedback (and to be fair we haven’t had any adverse feedback in relation to DWF – other than what was said at the last Developers Forum). We will of course continue to monitor and undertake a similar exercise after 12 months”.
Comments
Feedback on typical fees expected would be useful. Louise Dwelly reiterates that the standard hourly rate is the same whether internal or external solicitors are used to draft the agreement. Most delays tend to be down to changes being made to the standard precedent. It’s worthwhile noting that in many cases, it is the applicants’ solicitors who are raising queries on the drafts. Standard templates have been in use for some time now to try to keep drafting queries to a minimum.
MG asked Nigel Doyle to provide an average cost per s.106 and report back to the next Forum – ACTION ND
6. Impact of Rent Reviews
Some developers are reporting that RPs are pulling out of contracts, reviewing their offers (coming back with a 20-25% reduction) and simply not bidding for rented units on s106 sites due to the national rent cap. This seems to be an issue across the board and causes issues with s.106 triggers. Louise Dwelly explained that the Council are always willing to work with developers on site specific issues. There are a number of options which can be explored in terms of tenure switches, the use of grant funding and follow up RPs to encourage pricing. If there are issues with developers being in breach of their Section 106 trigger points due to the impact of national changes, then the Section 106 Monitoring Officers should be notified as soon as possible.
7. Starter Homes
The Government’s Spending Review announced a new Starter Homes initiative with£3.9b to invest in ‘starter homes’ plus £4b for Help to Buy, however there is no detail yet available. The HCA will forward details when available.
8. Any Other Business
No other business
Date of next meeting
21st March 2016, 1.30pm, Carrick Council Chamber

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