Decisions

To ensure Council Houses are safe, secure

Approval to award call off from DPS for Window replacement for Oaktree Court

The Mayor of Bristol has set out the objective of delivering 2,000 new homes, 800 affordable, each year. In response to this the Council allocated £57m for the provision of a grant funding programme to Registered Providers, and other eligible non-profit making organisations, for the delivery of affordable homes for rent together with supplementary grants to incentivise the development of zero carbon affordable homes, the adoption of modular housing and the building of wheelchair accessible homes. This award relates to the 22nd round of grant funding by the Council under the Affordable Housing Funding Policy (current version approved by Cabinet on the 2nd April 2019).

Approves the grant allocation to United Communities Housing Association of £2,750,000 for the development of 30 affordable rented homes (£2,250,000) and a supplementary grant (£500,000), in accordance with the Affordable Housing Funding Policy. The supplementary grant providing for the installation, for the whole scheme (of 50 affordable homes in total), a high level of insulation to improve airtightness (equivalent to Passivhaus standards) and connection to the city centre heat network. This decision is made under delegated authority for the award of grant (including those in excess of £500,00) to support the delivery of affordable housing approved by Cabinet on 7th March 2017 and supersedes any previous decision in relation to this scheme.

To enable release of sites specifically to the community led housing sector via an open, transparent bidding process for the delivery of community led housing to meet Corporate objectives of taking an ‘asset-based community development’ approach to work with communities and partners to transfer assets and power to greater numbers of people so they have more involvement. To support community build housing offering local communities, Community Land Trusts, local builders, eco-homes and self-builds the chance to identify land and empty buildings for redevelopment and bring forward appropriate Council land to kick-start development

To dispose of land to community groups in line with the Community Led Housing Land Disposal Policy.
The decision was taken to approve preferred bidder status to community groups and to dispose of land to these groups subject to schemes being further developed and subject to satisfactory planning consent as detailed below:
a)to approve the award of preferred bidder status for six community groups as follows:
1.Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust - Land at 14-16 Constable Road, Lockleaze
2.Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust - Land at 26-32 Constable Road, Lockleaze
3.Hillfields Family and Community Trust - Land neighbouring Hillfields Park Community Centre
4.Furze (Fully Mutual) Housing Co-operative - Land at Rowlandson Gardens, Lockleaze
5.The Tiny House Community Benefits Society -Land at Sea Mills Training Centre, Sea Mills
6.Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust - Land at Turner Gardens, Lockleaze
b)to delegate authority for Officers to work with the groups to progress the schemes to full planning consent.
c)to delegate authority to Officers to dispose of the sites to the six community groups at the bid price subject to retaining the integrity in principle of the bid proposals and subject to full planning consent being granted.

District Heating Systems require a specific expertise and BC needs to procure this expertise from external organisations to ensure that the correct technical and commercial decisions are being taken in relation to the construction and commissioning of the District Heating Systems and that compliant documentation is produced for an effective handover to operations.
In this case it was decided that the best way of procuring this expertise was through Sustainable Energy due to the previous work they had carried out on these systems and that this would mean that design integrity and indemnity would be maintained for these works.

Approval to award work to Sustainable Energy.
The Energy Service has several District Heat Network Projects at an advanced stage of construction, involving commissioning, starting operation and handing over to the Operating Company. The conceptual and detailed design of these projects has been carried out by Sustainable Energy, and the decision has been made to award work to Sustainable Energy to review the installed construction, commission, accept and handover the projects to the BCC Operations Team.

To accelerate the provision of housing to meet the Mayor’s target of making sure that 2,000 new homes – 800 affordable – are built in Bristol each year by 2020.

That the Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration, the Section 151 Officer and the Mayor with responsibility for Housing (with appropriate legal and procurement advice) approves entering into contract with BoKlok Housing (`direct’ award) for the development of 79 affordable homes.