Turnkey Acquisitions for Social Housing

1.    that delegated authority
be granted to the Director of Finance, in consultation with the
Cabinet Member for Housing and Finance, and the Director of Pride
in Place, to acquire 14 homes at Site A and 4 homes at Site B, as
located in Exempt Appendices 2 and 3 for affordable housing,
subject to the satisfactory completion of all due diligence and
securing an acceptable allocation of grant funding from Homes
England;

2.    that the required
long-term borrowing be funded from the £20m prudential
borrowing headroom agreed by Full Council in May 2025, and utilise
an allocation of internal affordable housing capital funding for
each site as proposed in Exempt Appendix 1 to reduce prudential
borrowing and deliver a viable scheme overall, with delegation
granted to the Director of Finance, in consultation with the
Cabinet Member for Housing and Finance to agree the precise mix of
internal funding sources from relevant existing approved
budgets;

3.    that delegated authority
be given to the Head of Strategic Housing and Delivery to seek the
maximum amount of grant funding that is considered reasonable and
likely from Homes England;

4.    that delegated authority
be given to the Head of Strategic Housing and Delivery, in
consultation with the Director of Finance, to finalise terms to
acquire the developments; and

5.    that delegated authority
be given to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of
the Council, to make the final decision as to the split of the
properties between those in temporary accommodation and care
experienced young people.

Torbay faced acute
housing challenges, with 1,600 households registered for social
housing and around 160 in temporary accommodation at any
time.  Furthermore, the proposal
represents a cost-effective and timely opportunity to deliver
against multiple strategic objectives demonstrating the
Council’s willingness to strengthen its response to local
housing pressures.

Option 1 the preferred
option – was to proceed with the acquisition of the Sites A and B,
to deliver 18 new homes and enable their conversion for social
rent, to be let to households currently living in Temporary
Accommodation, other forms of emergency/supported housing or care
experienced young people. As both schemes were below Torbay’s
threshold of 15 homes, neither scheme would otherwise provide
affordable housing tenures – the Council’s intervention
therefore significantly enhances the benefit of the projects to the
community in Torbay.

Option 2 – not to
proceed with the purchases. Whilst this option would avoid capital
risk; it would not improve the housing situation and would be less
likely to secure delivery of the site to meet Local Plan targets in
the short-medium term. It would also mean Torbay misses an
opportunity to increase its social housing stock.

This decision will
come into force and may be implemented on 2 September 2025 unless
the call-in procedure is triggered (as set out in the Standing
Orders in relation to Overview and Scrutiny).

Torbay Council had the
opportunity to acquire 14 newly built, well located homes in
Torquay (Site A) and 4 homes in Paignton (Site
B) through turnkey arrangements, including the associated
freeholds. These acquisitions were intended to
deliver affordable housing for social rent, primarily for
households in temporary accommodation and care
experienced young people.

The Council had
applied for Homes England grant funding to subsidise the
purchases and enable tenure conversion to social rent. The
acquisitions were to be funded through a mix of internal capital
and prudential borrowing from the £20 million
headroom approved by Council in May 2025.

At the meeting
Councillor Tyerman proposed and Councillor Chris Lewis seconded a
motion that was agreed unanimously by the Cabinet, as set out
above.