Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from those Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

Apologies were received from Cllr Zarina Amin and Jonathan Milner.

The Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have disclosable pecuniary interests, which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items, or any other interests.

Cllr Susan Lee-Richards declared on ‘other’ interest in respect of agenda item agenda item 8, Small Centres Programme.

Cllr Yusra Hussain, Cllr John Taylor and Susan Lee-Richards declared that they are members of the Housing Improvement Board.

Most debates take place in public. This only changes when there is a need to consider certain issues, for instance, commercially sensitive information or details concerning an individual. You will be told at this point whether there are any items on the Agenda which are to be discussed in private.

All agenda items were considered in public session.

The Panel will receive any petitions and/or deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also submit a petition at the meeting relating to a matter on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, Members of the Public must submit a deputation in writing, at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting and shall subsequently be notified if the deputation shall be heard. A maximum of four deputations shall be heard at any one meeting.

No deputations or petitions were received.

To receive any public questions.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the period for the asking and answering of public questions shall not exceed 15 minutes.

Any questions must be submitted in writing at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

No public questions were asked.

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.

To provide an update on progress and next steps relating to the delivery of sites in the Housing Delivery Plan to secure Housing Growth outcomes.

Contact:    Joanne Bartholomew, Service Directorate, Development

              Adele Buckley, Head of Housing Growth and Regeneration and

             Thomas Fish Strategic Partnership Lead – Housing Growth and  

             Regeneration

Cllr Graham Turner introduced the Housing Delivery Plan update report, advising that it is a detailed report which outlines work currently being undertaken and projects in the pipeline and had recently been to Cabinet.

Joanne Bartholomew informed the Panel that by 2026, there will be 900 more homes.  Often the talk is about building houses, however, it is important to remember that it is building homes for people, much needed homes across the district.  There are some key strategic sites, and the Panel will be updated on the two main ones, and also some of the other works in the pipeline going forward, giving consideration around affordability and a mix of housing.

Thomas Fish, Strategic Partnership Lead, gave the Panel an overview of the appended report, advising that the first part of the report covers broadly what the team are involved in, and the program of works including some of the sites that are ongoing or in the process of starting.  There are sites within the program, which are Council owned, including the two strategic sites, Bradley Park, and Dewsbury Riverside.

The Council also works with funding bodies such as the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Homes England, for any opportunities and funding programs that they have.  For example, the accelerated construction program, in terms of the Soothill site, which used Homes England funding.  There is work on the town centre living plans linked to the blueprints, looking at specific properties within Huddersfield Town centre and within Daisy Hill, using the town's fund funding.

The team works and sits on specialist supported housing forums within the Council, and also works closely with colleagues in housing services and planning, to secure affordable homes.   Work is also being undertaken talking to register providers about the developments they are doing off their own merit, but also ones where the council looks to partner with them to deliver the Council sites.

There is also the Brokerage Service which looks at sites which may have stalled in the system or developers might need advice.  The service provides specialist knowledge or help with partnership working with developers or registered providers who are interested in investing within Kirklees.

The appended report also touches on first homes, which is a very specific technical element linked to affordable housing.  The service consults on planning applications and provide specialist advice.  Previously, there had been discounted market housing, there has also been starter homes and the latest iteration of a government discounted housing is first homes, which is part of the affordable housing that has to be delivered for housing sites across the district.

The Panel was informed that in terms of the sites, a great deal of work is going into each one of these sites, and there are many project managers working on different elements.  The first site is Bradley Park, a large allocation within the Kirklees local plan.  The Council owns a significant piece of the site and has been working using West Yorkshire Combined Authority funding on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To update the Panel on progress being made on the Local Centres programme.

Contact:  Joanne Bartholomew, Service Director, Development and Simon Taylor, Head of Town Centre Programmes

Cllr Graham Turner, Portfolio holder, introduced the agenda item, advising that the appended report, outlines progress on small town centres. There are four town centres being concentrated on with the possibility of a fifth, looking longer term at Marsden in light of some funding that has been received. There has been a lot of work to get to this stage and some are more advanced than others and some have been more challenging, however progress is being made.  Some extra funding has been levered in to help deliver these, with the cost pressures, the external funding has to be welcomed.

Simon Taylor, Head of Town Centres Programmes advise the Panel that in summary, it is four towns, Batley, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Holmfirth, four continuous engagement programmes and four projects to get off the ground.  This programme is the council trying to strengthen local centres, recognising those are important places for people to live, work and do business.  It is an important program that is being expanded to include a fifth centre, Marsden.  The Panel was given a breakdown on the progress being made in each of the centres.

In summary;

Batley

Batley has been overtaken by a levelling up process and in many ways it is one of the success stories of starting to develop plans and programs in a particular area.  Without the initial work that had been carried out, around local centres, the levelling up bids in round two would have been weak.  It has gone from a small allocation of £2.5 million and that has been increased to £14.38 million, which is a great achievement and work is on with developing that.

In terms of the process undertaken in Batley, place standard exercises were carried out early, which was used to inform the master planning process.  Some extra work had also been carried out in Batley as there was some extra funding, and this gave a clear idea of what people were wanting around their town centre.  This information was fed into the masterplan, and engagement on that was undertaken last year.

In terms of Batley, the programme is concentrating on Commercial St, which is the main street that runs through the middle of Batley, and also looking at how to improve Marketplace.

Cleckheaton

Cleckheaton was one of the programs that got off the ground quickly.  A scrutiny session was held early this year, at the end of the master plan program, and then followed an almost identical process to Batley.   One place standards engagement was held using the ward councillors as key reference points,  and now there is a completed master plan and a number of key schemes that ward councillors and communities want to be delivered.  The schemes identified for development and delivery include Savoy Square and Market, Spen Bottom and Market Square.

Heckmondwike

Heckmondwike is slightly behind the others, and is just at the end of the masterplan consultation period, which ended on the 19^th June 2023, and the team are examining all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.