Meeting documents

The Chairman welcomed Mr Gary Orr, Chief Executive of the Yarlington Housing Group, to speak regarding the Right to Buy clawback agreement. 

Mr Orr advised that when the company was formed in 1999, they had raised significant private finance and had built 1,211 new houses since then.  However, 889 houses had been lost in the preserved Right to Buy scheme and people who could afford to buy their own homes 10 to 15 years ago could no longer afford the current housing prices.   In the last 5 years £5.2m had been paid to SSDC in preserved Right to Buy receipts and he said a significant proportion of this had not been reinvested into new housing.  He said that if SSDC could commit the £1m per annum they received each year to new housing, then Yarlington Group could lever in further private finance which could generate an additional 30 homes built per year. 

The Portfolio Holder for Strategy and Policy noted that Government funding for the disabled facilities grants was expected to be reduced which would be at a cost to the Council

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee suggest that the Council consider if the Right to Buy clawback monies should be ring fenced as a principle and she offered to set up a Scrutiny Task and Finish group to look at this and assess any impact on the Council’s Capital Programme.

The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) cautioned Members against ring-fencing all the Right to Buy receipts for affordable housing.  She reminded them that there were several priority projects on-going however, they could review this decision on an annual basis. 

The Corporate Strategic Housing Manager reminded Members that they had allocated £750,000 to Yarlington for affordable housing projects in the previous year and this was realising 3 bungalows in Yeovil and 17 properties in Misterton. 

During discussion, Members drew attention to the flexibility of the current scheme which allowed them to direct funding to their highest areas of need and also that there were other Housing Associations in the area who SSDC worked with.  

At the conclusion of the debate, Members agreed to retain the current clawback arrangement from Preserved Right to Buy receipts, and, to undertake a Scrutiny Task & Finish review in the Autumn to review the SSDC position on the Right to Buy (RTB) Clawback.

Mr Orr thanked Members for their consideration of his proposal and said he looked forward to working positively with the Scrutiny Task and Finish group.