Agenda item

 Increasing the Supply of Homes

The Deputy Chairman referred to the commitment the City Corporation made in 2015 to build 3,700 housing units i.e. 700 on its existing estates and 3,000 on other land it owned. He advised that since that time the magnitude of the housing crisis in London had become more acute and was now high on the political agenda.  He asked how many units had been completed since 2015 and questioned the timetable for the delivery of the remainder of the programme. The Deputy Chairman also questioned whether the City Corporation had been approached by more imaginative developers who were able to deliver housing quickly even on small sights.

The Chairman advised that in terms of providing700 new homes on existing social housing estates by 2025, 62 new units had been delivered so far - 43 at Horace Jones House, one at Dron House and 18 at Twelve Acres House. There were a further seven schemes which were at various stages of the Gateway process and which were expected to deliver a further 270 new units. Of those seven schemes, four had been approved by planning and would deliver a further 43 new units over the next three years.

A planning application for the City of London Primary Academy Islington scheme was expected to be determined in December this year and, if approved, would deliver 66 new units by 2020. A pre-planning application for 158 new units at Sydenham Hill had been submitted to Lewisham and grant funding of over £14m had been secured from the GLA for the projects. The majority of the remaining 420 new units would be built, primarily, from development opportunities on the Avondale and York Way Estates. 

Consideration was also being given to a number of opportunities to work with private developers e.g. on the York Way and Holloway Estates, where the City Corporation had been approached by developers bidding for the rights to the former Holloway Prison site. The City Corporation had also been contacted by a private Registered Social Landlord about the possibility of entering into a partnership for the development of land at Windsor House and a number of developers seeking opportunities to purchase our land for their own development. Whilst the City Corporation does consider all the opportunities presented to it, some were simply not in line with the Corporation’s own aspirations.

Given the concerns which had been raised by Members generally about the progress in the delivery of these new homes a paperwas scheduled to be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee and to January’s meeting of the Community and Children’s Services Committee concerning the wider options for delivering the 3700 new units and the governance arrangements which might be required to support it. The report would also include proposals to establish a Housing Working Party which, if supported she would be looking to the Deputy Chairman to chair.

Business Cards imprinted in Braille

A Member referred to the Executive Director of Mansion House and Central Criminal Court’s business cards being imprinted in Braille. He questioned whether all the City Corporation’s business cards should do the same. The Chairman advised that the matter should be referred to the Chief Commoner to be looked at in consultation with the Members Privileges Sub-Committee.  

Reference was made to the Director’s title being 17 words long and the need for a shorter title to be established. Members questioned the need for “Executive” to be part of the title particularly as all the other Chief Officers were simply entitled “Director”.

RESOLVED – That consideration of whether business cards should be imprinted in Braille be referred to the Chief Commoner to looked at in consultation with the Members Privileges Sub-Committee.