Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils
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Agenda item

Minutes:

59.1    Question 1 Councillor Mick Fraser to the Cabinet Member for Environment.

                                                                                                                 

59.2    As Councillor Fraser was unable to attend the start of the meeting Councillor Ward read out the question on his behalf.

 

59.3    Babergh’s high street businesses are still currently closed for trading due to government Covid-19 rules and guidelines.  In Hadleigh, there has still been no consultation with any business organization or the Town Council which resulted in considerable protest against these parking proposals.  Although proposed changes will not now be implemented any sooner than 1st October 2021, this will still too early for businesses to have made a full recovery and assess the impact on them of this global pandemic has had on them.

 

More time is required; more time which could be used to form respective steering groups to discuss this issue, but also future matters that impact our high streets and how best to regenerate what is the heart of our communities so that we can all benefit and take ownership of high street management and policy going forward.

 

Would you therefore agree with me that Babergh should wait until at least 1st April 2022 to implement any changes thus giving appropriate time to engage with respective Town Councils, Chambers of Commerce, and other relevant organisations?

 

59.4    Response from the Cabinet Member for Environment, Councillor Elisabeth Malvisi.

 

          I know that the Covid-19 pandemic has hit businesses hard. To date Babergh Council have so far paid out over £27m of grants to support businesses. There are 10 grants still open and I would encourage those who need it to apply. Go to the Babergh District Council Website, click ‘Business’ and then ‘Business Rates’ and you will see the area for Covid-19 Grant Funding Schemes.

 

          I attended the Council meeting where the petition to keep free parking in Hadleigh was debated. I also attended the Overview and Scrutiny Committee where the original parking paper was also debated. The steer to us was clear from both meetings, more free time and a later implementation date. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee specifically recommended one-hour free parking and at not before September or October and we’ve elected a not before October implementation date. We have listened, and we have agreed with this recommendation, as you will see in the report before you today, but please also recognise that is we are not Covid free we will revisit the implementation date.

 

          The Comprehensive Strategic Parking Review we have committed to in this paper answers your point on the need to deal with future matters that impact the High Streets. We will consult on the wider issue of parking, both on-street and off-street, in our District with residents, businesses and other key stakeholders to make sure we are prepared for the next 5-10 years. This work is due to begin later this year.

 

59.5    Councillor Fraser joined the meeting and asked the following supplementary question.

 

          What measures are Babergh taking to communicate with our high street retailers, independent retailers and business partners at the moment considering that we are currently in this tier 5 lockdown so that we have this line of communication with them prior to implementing any changes to our parking measures.

 

59.6    Response from the Cabinet Member for Environment.

 

          The change in pricing of the car parks requires a consultation so we will be going out for consultation in that period and obviously whatever we pick up during that consultation period we will then retain the knowledge and apply it to the actual Strategic Parking Review that as noted in the paper that we hope to start later on this year.

 

59.7    Question 2 Councillor Robert Lindsay to the Cabinet Member for Housing.

 

Brighton and Hove Council just a few days ago have set up a "sustainability and retrofit" reserve of £4m in their Housing Revenue Account starting in the 2021-22 year. This is to retrofit their council housing stock in order to meet their goal of zero carbon by 2030. In view of the urgency of addressing the climate challenge, why doesn't Babergh set aside a similar reserve beginning 2021-22 financial year to help meet our target?

 

59.8    Response from the Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Jan Osborne.

 

Babergh District Council is committed to the aspirations of decarbonising our existing Council Housing stock, along with our broader commitments as part of our motion on a Climate Emergency and more recently our Carbon Reduction Management Plan, as well as our Homes and Housing Strategy.

 

Currently work is taking place by officers to develop a revised Housing Revenue Account Business Plan which will set out our ambitions and our financial commitments in the medium and long term. We expect to bring this work forward during the summer and we will ensure the development of our plans involve members through meaningful involvement and consultation.

 

We know that a recent national housing survey has put the cost of decarbonisation at £20,742 per property whilst the figures provided by the social housing sector range from £3,000 to £50,000 per home.

 

For us, the cost could be up to £70m, whilst we know that the cost of retrofitting the social housing sector is estimated nationally at £104bn. 

 

It is for these reasons that we do not see any benefit to creating a specific reserve for our HRA Housing stock, in relation to retrofit and sustainability. Especially when the required investment is so significant in addition to the whole landlord service and all the initiatives, we wish to undertake to improve our services for tenants.

         

Our work on the development of our business plans requires a transformational approach which utilises our ringfenced income and ensures that we can provide our existing tenants with high quality, safe accommodation that provides tenants with benefits such as affordable energy bills whilst supporting our wider environmental aims. This inevitably will involve looking at ‘invest to save’ initiatives in order to free up monies to enable us to meet the huge challenge in making our existing housing stock carbon neutral.

 

As demonstrated, we need to maximise our HRA receipts to support the improvements to our existing stock whilst supporting our ambitions to build much needed new affordable homes for our residents. This is why we are committing £21.5 million during the next four years to our Capital programme for Housing Maintenance and renewal and a further £16.2m to new build and acquisitions during the same period.

 

Hence creating a reserve is not the solution and a broader review of how our HRA assets and limited resources meet all our aspirations will be carried out and put forward in the forthcoming HRA Business Plan.

 

I would like to add that this Council has a history of environmental improvements to our Council housing which benefits our tenants and the wider environment. Historically this may have been reroofing homes, installing double glazing or installing central heating. I would however point directly to:

         

·        The large Solar PV programme that took place 2014/15 and has resulted in greatly reduced bills for our tenants.

·        Warm Homes Grant that has historically provided hundreds of air source heating systems.

·        Loft and Cavity wall insulation programmes

·        Currently the successful bid for Green Homes Grant which will provide environmental and sustainability improvements to 38 council homes, whilst we await a decision on our bid for the second round of Green Homes Grant Funding.

·            An external wall insulation programme will begin very shortly which will benefit and improve a number of homes in Great Cornard  as well as work being undertaken in Springlands in Sudbury together with more properties in Babergh.

59.9    Councillor Lindsay then asked the following supplementary question:

         

I think what you are saying you are not going to commit any set sum, certainly not this year, and we do not know what you are going to commit to retrofitting homes to make them carbon zero at least until you produce this business plan. I just wonder how that squares with the commitments in the Carbon Reduction Plan which said that the Officers were going to draw up a report to access exactly what the needs were for retrofitting Council homes and that was supposed to be  by the third quarter of the current financial year that passed in December.

 

59.10  Response from the Cabinet Member for Housing:

 

We will be committing some money in the HRA plan but not necessarily ringfencing a large amount. We need to think outside the box and be innovative in our approach rather than simply setting monies aside. As mentioned in my response, we will be reviewing, how we can meet our combined aspirations and how they can be delivered but we need to strike a good balance between delivering on our carbon reduction plan and also providing affordable homes for those in need. As far as the lapse in the timetable I think its fair to say that with Covid-19 a lot of our resources have had to be directed in other places, but we will pick up with that and be running with it. The HRA business plan will be coming forward to Cabinet within the very near future and I think then you will have more of your questions answered with that new business plan.

 

59.11  Question 3 Councillor Robert Lindsay to the Cabinet Member for Environment:

 

The Suffolk Climate Change Partnership, of which Babergh is part, has proposed that a reduction of 25% car use in Suffolk by 2030 is required to get to net zero by then. It is building consensus amongst the business community for this target. To get there will require Babergh to produce a ten-year plan to match that goal in 2030 to invest in public transport, cycling, walking and car sharing so that people have an alternative to car use. There has been virtually no investment in active travel in the past decade by Babergh. Why are we implementing car park charging without having drawn up a costed, timetabled plan for investment in active travel?

 

59.12  Response from the Cabinet Member for Environment:

 

The Suffolk Climate Change Partnership will flag up the need for significant reductions in car use in the Suffolk Climate Action Plan which is currently in production.  However, the SCCP will not be leading on measures to achieve the reductions – that will be for transport and planning specialists across the authorities to deliver, which includes Babergh through the new Sustainable Travel Officer who has only recently been recruited and will be producing a plan. 

 

The Council agreed early last year to recruit a Sustainable Travel officer and I can confirm that Katherine Davies started in this role on 01 February. Katherine will be responsible for delivering the SCC a costed and prioritised sustainable travel plan which picks up walking cycling, public transport, which of course is a County responsibility, and other opportunities that may exist. The plan will take some time to develop and it is right that it is developed alongside any measures around car parking.

 

59.13 Councillor Lindsay asked the following supplementary question:

 

Does cycling come into the Sustainable Travel Officers remit?

 

59.14  Response from Councillor Malvisi:

 

          Yes, within the parking that we are presenting today we are trying to get it to be cost neutral so that we can actually put in parking bays rather than see the bicycles tied up to St Peters railings and other such things dotted around the town.