Decision details

The Cabinet will be asked to consider the different delivery options suitable for Gascoigne Goresbrook and Leys Estates exploring how residents will be involved

Further to Minute 27 (23 August 2011), the Cabinet Member for Housing presented a report on the disposal and delivery options for the Gascoigne Estate element of the Council’s Estate Renewal Programme.

Previous reports to Cabinet on 6 July and 2 November 2010 (Minutes 21 and 49 respectively) established the principles for the Gascoigne Estate project.  The Cabinet Member advised that the availability of £18.3m funding from the Homes and Communities Agency and the affordability of the entire Estate Renewal programme had now led to a different approach being proposed to that adopted for the Leys and Goresbrook elements of the programme.  Of the three detailed options that had been considered - a partnership arrangement with a Housing Association, the procurement of a development partner via an OJEU compliant Developer Framework, and a stock transfer to a Housing Association - the partnership arrangement with a Housing Association represented, on balance, the best overall approach for the Council and the residents of the area.

Cabinet agreed:-

  (i)  That the preferred delivery option for the Gascoigne Estate be to select, through an OJEU competitive tender process, a Housing Association to enter into a partnership arrangement with the Council to regenerate the areas identified for redevelopment on the Estate, with the final terms to be agreed under delegated authority by the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources, advised by the Corporate Director of Customer Services and the Divisional Director of Legal and Democratic Services, and in consultation with the Lead Members for Housing and Regeneration; and

  (ii)  To delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources, subject to the advice of the Corporate Director of Customer Services and the Divisional Director of Legal and Democratic Services, and in consultation with the Lead Members for Housing and Regeneration, to negotiate and agree final terms of all necessary commercial and legal transactions, agreements and contracts, and do all other lawful things necessary to finalise and complete the project as set out in the report.