Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Investment presented a report on plans for a reinvigorated approach for Barking and Dagenham Reside (B&D Reside), the special purpose vehicle (SPV) established by the Council to hold and manage affordable housing developments with the Borough.

By Minute 50 (13 November 2012), the Cabinet had agreed the structural and governance arrangements for the creation of B&D Reside.  Since that time, the company had been successfully managing approximately 600 properties via various commissioning arrangements with the Council as it had no directly employed staff.  The Cabinet Member explained that the Council’s major programme of housing development over the next five years was expected to increase the B&D Reside property portfolio by at least another 3,000 properties and it was necessary, therefore, to review the structural arrangements for the company to ensure that it was fit-for-purpose going forward.  Following a review, a series of key actions were proposed which included the formation of B&D Reside as a single management entity with a new Board of Directors, directly-appointed staff and refined governance arrangements with the Council as sole shareholder.

Cabinet Members spoke in support of the innovative approach as a means of maintaining the Council’s drive to provide high-quality, affordable homes to social tenants.  The Cabinet Member for Economic and Social Development also made the point that the construction of 3,000 new homes over the next five years would mean that, despite the ongoing loss of Council housing due to Right to Buy sales, a greater number of homes would be available to those on the Council’s housing waiting list.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Approve the creation of a Reside Management Company on the terms set out in paragraph 2 of the report;

(ii)  Agree that the shareholder role of the Council be exercised through the Cabinet advised by the Shareholder Panel;

(iii)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, to commence the recruitment and selection of a Chair of the Board of Directors; and

(iv)  Delegate authority to the Director of Law and Governance to prepare and execute articles of association or partnership agreements and any relevant legal agreements or documents on behalf of the Council to implement the creation of the new Reside company.