75 MC/20/30 RESPONSE TO THE CONSULTATION ON THE FUTURE OF NEW HOMES BONUS PDF 222 KB
Cabinet Member for Finance
Minutes:
Councillor Whitehead introduced the report and informed Council that this was a long - awaited consultation on the future of New Homes Bonus.
The Council’s Constitution delegates responsibility for responding to consultations to the relevant Assistant Director but in this case the Monitoring Officer had concluded that the consultation was of significant importance so should be referred to Full Council for a response.
Due to the timescales of the response and the number of questions to be considered, there was insufficient time to fully debate this at Council. It was therefore proposed that a cross party working group be established to agree a response in conjunction with the Assistant Director for Resources.
Councillor Whitehead also drew attention to the amended membership of the Babergh Working Group following their Babergh Council meeting.
Councillor Whitehead then MOVED the recommendations in the report which Councillor Hadingham SECONDED.
Councillor Field raised concerns that Councillors who were not involved in the Working Group would not get to see the responses.
The Assistant Director for Corporate Resources informed Councillor Field that two meetings would be held to discuss the responses and Councillors who were part of the Working Group would be encouraged to keep the other members of their Group informed of the progress.
The full submission would be circulated to Members for information once completed.
Councillor Matthissen felt that the Council had experienced difficulties when completing these types of consultation and requested that the Monitoring Officer circulated some general advice on the submission of responses to consultations to Councillors and officers.
It was RESOLVED:-
1.1 That a joint cross-party working group be appointed to formulate the Councils’ response to the Future of the New Homes Bonus Consultation and that the membership of the working group be agreed as detailed in paragraph 4.6 of the report.
1.2 That delegated authority be given to the Assistant Director for Corporate Resources to formally submit the consultation response agreed by the working group on the Council’s behalf.
73 BC/20/31 RESPONSE TO THE CONSULTATION ON THE FUTURE OF NEW HOMES BONUS PDF 222 KB
Cabinet Member for Finance
Minutes:
73.1 Councillor Ward introduced the report and MOVED the recommendations in the report.
73.2 Councillor Ward informed Council that this was a long-awaited public consultation on the future of the New Homes Bonus. The Monitoring Officer had ruled that the consultation was deemed to be of significance and should be referred to full Council for a response. However due to the short timescales given by the MHCLG it was proposed that a working group of the Council be established to agree a response with the Assistant Director of Resources for submission by the deadline of 7th April 2021.
73.3 The proposed membership of the working group for Babergh was the Cabinet Member for Housing, the Cabinet Member for Finance and two Councillors in total from the Independent Group, the Liberal Democrat Group and the Labour Group.
73.4 Councillor Osborne SECONDED the recommendations.
73.5 Councillor Lindsay raised concerns about the membership of the Group and stated that the Independents and Liberal Democrats were part of the Administration and therefore membership should be selected from the Green and Labour Groups.
73.6 Councillor Hinton felt that it should be the Cabinet Member for Planning rather than the Cabinet Member for Housing and moved an amendment to replace the Cabinet Member for Housing with the Cabinet Member for Planning.
73.7 This was seconded by Councillor Plumb.
73.8 Councillor Ward accepted the amendment.
73.9 Councillor Holt and Councillor Beer felt that a Conservative should be on the Working Group.
73.10 Councillor Lindsay proposed that Councillor Gould be a member of the group and Councillor Ward proposed that Councillor Jan Osborne be a member of the Group.
This was PUT to Council and CARRIED
It was RESOLVED:-
1. That a joint cross-party working group be appointed to formulate the Councils’ response to the Future of the New Homes Bonus Consultation and that the membership of the working group be agreed as follows:-
Cabinet Member for Finance
Cabinet Member for Planning
Cabinet Member for Housing
Councillor Jane Gould.
2. That delegated authority be given to the Assistant Director for Corporate Resources to formally submit the consultation response agreed by the working group on the Council’s behalf.