Agenda item

To consider whether to initiate the Property Dealing Procedure in respect of each of the 69 proposed areas of land identified in order for development/disposal proposals to be explored and to seek Cabinet’s approval to the short-listing and prioritisation principles.

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

(a)    agrees to initiate the Property Dealing Procedure in respect of each of the areas identified in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report;

(b)    agrees that priority action be taken in relation to bringing forward proposals for further decision in relation to the potential development of the sites at Fernlea Road, Harwich and Seaview Close, Little Oakley, as contained in the appendix and subject to the Council’s Corporate Priority actions;

(c)    determines a prioritised list of the other sites, having regard to:

i)     the likely ease or otherwise of completing disposal actions with limited resources;

ii)     the identified need for social housing provision in the area;

iii)    the number of potential dwellings identified;

iv)   the potential level of capital contribution to other priorities;

all to be subject to further decision in relation to the allocation of resources required; and

(d)   requests that Officers bring forward processes and ultimately reports for further decision in respect of the freehold disposal of sites at Crome Road Clacton-on-Sea, Dover Road, Brightlingsea and Burrows Close, Clacton-on-Sea.

Cabinet considered a comprehensive report of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder (A.5), which sought its approval to the short-listing and prioritisation principles in respect of each of the 69 proposed areas of land identified in order for development/disposal proposals to be initiated under the Property Dealing Procedure.

Members recalled that, as part of the rationalisation of the Council’s assets and in order to help address the housing need in Tendring, both green space and under-utilised land had been evaluated to find those with the potential for redevelopment for housing.  69 separate areas had been identified for consideration and were set out in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance’s report. The Portfolio Holder had been consulted on each of the pieces of land identified and whilst normally the initiation of the Property Dealing Procedure was a Portfolio Holder decision, due to the large number of areas identified and the potential scale and impact, the Portfolio Holder had decided to refer this decision to the Cabinet.

Cabinet was informed that all land identified was owned and maintained by the Council and was a mix from both the housing and general fund portfolios. Appendix A aforesaid identified each piece of land by way of a plan and photographs and provided some information on:

·      current and adjacent uses,

·      planning status under the current Local Plan,

·      any legal information or rights that are currently known,

·      whether the land is held in the HRA (H Suffix) or General Fund (G Suffix), and

·      housing need in the area as at 1 May 2020 identified in the Housing Strategy. 

Members were advised that the potential development plans for each piece of land were purely conceptual at this stage and did not guarantee that development was achievable. One option for those sites could be development of housing. Other uses, such as a disposal to produce a capital receipt or other actions might be possible following detailed work and consultation.

The Portfolio Holder’s report therefore merely requested the initiation of the Property Dealing Procedure to enable each area identified to be explored further, establishing the detailed planning position and putting together a development appraisal, including how a potential development fitted in the local area and whether other nearby public realm could be enhanced by the development.   A further decision would be sought for each individual piece of land as to if, or how, the development would be realised. However, due to the scale of the project, principles were necessary for prioritisation.

Cabinet recalled that it had agreed its Highlight Priorities for 2022/23 at its meeting in February 2022, and that under C5 ‘Use assets to support priorities’ the first milestone was to prepare the long list of potential disposal/development sites for Portfolio Holder shortlisting. The list had been prepared and discussed with the Portfolio Holder who had noted the scale of the list, potential financial and resource impacts as well as the geographical spread of locations and had therefore decided that in all of the circumstances a Cabinet consideration of the list and potential actions was necessary.

It was proposed that the first of those principles would be to shortlist between those properties which provided a capital receipt to contribute to the Council’s financial position, to reinvest back in the Corporate Investment Plan to fund the Council’s projects and priorities and those which were deemed suitable for housing development for building and managing TDC owned homes.

Proposed principles of prioritisation were:

i)   The likely ease or otherwise of completing disposal actions with limited resources;

ii)  The identified need for social housing provision in the area;

iii) The number of potential dwellings identified, and;

iv) The potential level of capital contribution to other priorities.

Members were reminded that, in addition to the sites listed in Appendix A, Officers had previously initiated processes to dispose of, and to gain planning permission for, three further sites in the District, namely:

·      Land at Crome Road, Clacton-on-Sea

·      Land at Dover Road, Brightlingsea

·      Burrows Close, Clacton-on-Sea

Cabinet was aware that the Crome Road and Dover Road sites benefited from planning permission but that an application for the Burrows Road site had been withheld pending the review that was the principal topic of this report. It was proposed that those sites be taken forward for open market disposal in support of the wider capital programme and corporate priorities.

The Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder recorded his sincere thanks to the Council’s Property Services Team for their hard work and effort in putting this report together over a prolonged period of time.

In order to:-

(i)     determine Members’ priorities for each area of land for potential Council Housing growth; disposal to produce capital receipts for reinvestment into the Corporate Investment Plan to support the delivery of other Council priorities and projects; or for other development;

(ii)    start the process for those sites to be explored, planning opinion sought and a development appraisal to be carried out; and

(iii)   take forward actions on sites previously identified.

It was thereupon moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor P B Honeywood and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

(a)    agrees to initiate the Property Dealing Procedure in respect of each of the areas identified in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report;

(b)    agrees that priority action be taken in relation to bringing forward proposals for further decision in relation to the potential development of the sites at Fernlea Road, Harwich and Seaview Close, Little Oakley, as contained in the appendix and subject to the Council’s Corporate Priority actions;

(c)    determines a prioritised list of the other sites, having regard to:

i)     the likely ease or otherwise of completing disposal actions with limited resources;

ii)     the identified need for social housing provision in the area;

iii)    the number of potential dwellings identified;

iv)   the potential level of capital contribution to other priorities;

all to be subject to further decision in relation to the allocation of resources required; and

(d)   requests that Officers bring forward processes and ultimately reports for further decision in respect of the freehold disposal of sites at Crome Road Clacton-on-Sea, Dover Road, Brightlingsea and Burrows Close, Clacton-on-Sea.