Issue - meetings

1.    That Cabinet approved the 2024/25 drawdown of Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy monies as set out in this report, to fund expenditure of £22,413,499 for a wide range of community benefits across the borough.

Councillors Andrew Jones (Cabinet Member for the Economy) and Rowan Ree (Cabinet Member for Finance and Reform) introduced the report that set out the projects and services in the financial year from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, that are to be funded (in part or in full), from monies received through Section 106 agreements or the Borough Community Infrastructure Levy. Together they represented £22.4m of investment in community benefits secured by the Council from developers as part of their planning permission.

Councillor Andrew Jones noted that the £22.4m that had been negotiated allowed the Council to invest in projects such as the Civic Campus and the rejuvenation of King Street, the Law Enforcement Team to help keep residents safe and secure, the innovative gangs unit, genuinely affordable housing, and climate change and flood mitigations.

Councillor Rowan Ree added that this was more than the Council had ever raised from Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy, despite the challenging economic environment and showed the Council was getting as much money as possible for infrastructure and services for residents.

Councillor Adronie Alford asked if the additional money allocated to the Civic Campus was planned or an overspend. The Leader said the Council had always envisaged spending money to create flexible office space for entrepreneurs and they had expanded that. He added that there had been cost overruns that were well documented due to Brexit, the pandemic, and inflation, but the scheme would pay for itself within 15 years through income generation.

Councillor Alford asked if the issues with the Health and Safety Executive were due to be resolved. The Leader said that was a matter for the Health and Safety Executive. There was an accident on site, the Health and Safety Executive came in and carried out a detailed review which delayed the project by a year. But the project was back on track and aimed to be open early next year.

The Leader spoke about the Administration coming into office and their focus on improving negotiation with private developers to ensure the benefits of development were shared with residents. By improving training to officers and a change in culture he said they were able to achieve record sums and used that money to save the Lyric Theatre, give money to the H&F Foodbank, and have the largest number of Council-funded police officers in the borough’s history. The Leader thanked Councillor Andrew Jones for his leadership in this area.

RESOLVED

1. That Cabinet approves the 2024/25 drawdown of Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy monies as set out in this report, to fund expenditure of £22,413,499 for a wide range of community benefits across the borough.