Issue - meetings

The Panel will receive a presentation which gives an overview of the Growth and Regeneration Directorate.

Contact:  Joanne Bartholomew, Service Director, Development

Joanne Bartholomew Service Director Development, advised the Panel that the aim of this agenda item is to provide the panel with an overview of the role of the Growth and Regeneration Directorate. As part of the session a video will be shared with the panel, which highlights some of the wider developments in the Council and showcases some of the work being undertaken.  The session will also include why investment matters, and how cultural heart will be showcased.

In summary, the Panel was informed that one of the key considerations for the council, is ensuring that the district is strong and has a really deep seated, sustainable economy that allows all residents to have a great quality of life, leading to thriving communities, growing businesses, high prosperity, and low inequality.  That is the aspiration, but how is that going to be delivered.  In order to deliver a sustainable, economic growth across Kirklees, that puts people, partners, places at the heart of it, there are three key services across the directorate, Skills and Regeneration, Development, and Homes and Neighbourhoods.

Skills and Regeneration includes:

Major projects

Business and Economy

Employment and skills

Planning

Development includes:

Housing Growth

Corporate Landlord and Capital

Housing Services

Town Centres

Homes and Neighbourhood includes:

Operations

Asset Development

Housing Management and Partnership

Development, which includes housing growth, aims to ensure that there are enough houses, and the right type of houses, and the right sort of tenure of houses for all  local residents.  Work is being undertaken utilising the Council's land, working with other developers to bring forward housing states, making sure that at the heart of this is the Council's carbon agenda and inclusivity, encouraging both affordable and lifetimes homes to be built.

Development also includes Corporate Landlord and Capital Delivery Services,
that is everything that is in the current build environment that the Council owns.
The council is a large asset owning council, with over 130 buildings, and there is a significant amount of capital investment across the wider estate creating new affordable spaces as well as creating some dementia friendly spaces.  There is also investment in children centres and children’s care homes.

Housing Services is in essence, the front door to Homes and Neighbourhood, the third area of the Directorate.  Housing Services ensures that people who find themselves in the position of wanting to understand whether they can get social housing, are given an allocation and also where they are not entitled to social housing or where there wait for social housing may be considerable they are helped to access private options. It also deals with homelessness and refugee and migration resettlement.

On the agenda today for discussion is small centres, where the aim in the town centres is to create vibrant towns and villages across the district, creating a sense of economic prosperity, and managing and utilising the assets and those of partners.

The other two areas that are under Councillor Turner’s portfolio, are skills and regeneration, where major projects are undertaken, for example  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6