Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

A copy of the Register of Interest for each Selby District Councillor is available for inspection at www.selby.gov.uk.

Councillors should declare to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest in any item of business on this agenda which is not already entered in their Register of Interests.

Councillors should leave the meeting and take no part in the consideration, discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Councillors should also declare any other interests. Having made the declaration, provided the other interest is not a disclosable pecuniary interest, the Councillor may stay in the meeting, speak and vote on that item of business.

If in doubt, Councillors are advised to seek advice from the Monitoring Officer.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Policy Review Committee held on 8 September 2020.

The Committee considered the minutes of the meeting held on 8 September 2020.

RESOLVED:

To approve the minutes of the Policy Review Committee meeting held on  8 September 2020 for signing by the Chair.

There was no Chair’s address to the Policy Review Committee.

To receive an update on the work of the Low Carbon Working Group and ask the Policy Review Committee to endorse the Draft Low Carbon Action Plan.

The Committee received the report of the Senior Policy and Performance Officer which asked Members to endorse the Draft Low Carbon Action Plan.

Officers thanked the Committee for their work as part of the Low Carbon Working Group which had been proactive and collaborative. The group had met on five occasions (16 January 2020, 27 February 2020, 23 June 2020, 28 July 2020 and 6 October 2020), with updates from the group being a standing agenda item on Policy Review Committee meetings.

ThePolicy Review Low Carbon Working Group had developed a draft Action Plan which detailed actions which the Council could take in order to reduce its carbon footprint. The Action Plan focused on those actions which the Council could directly deliver, as well as those it could influence, through collaboration with others.   

The Committee noted that APSE (Association of Public Service Excellence) had been commissioned to undertake work on calculating the Council’s carbon footprint (based on 2018-19 data) and had calculated the Council’s scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 1 (direct) emissions were from activities owned or controlled by the Council. Examples included emissions from combustion in Council owned or controlled boilers, furnaces and vehicles. Scope 2 (indirect) emissions were associated with purchased electricity, heat, steam and cooling. They were a consequence of the Council’s energy use but occurred at sources that the Council did not own or control. Examples included grid supplied electricity and heat provided through a heat network. The Council’s annual carbon footprint was calculated at 418 tonnes. Scope 1 emissions made up 38% (160 tonnes) and scope 2 emissions 62% (257 tonnes).

Officers also informed Members that at Council on 22 September 2020 £1.2 million Programme for Growth funding over three years had been agreed for project feasibility and delivery, and £135k for a dedicated Officer resource.

Members discussed the report and agreed that the work of the group had been collaborative and cross party, and that it should continue following consideration by the Executive in December.

The Committee queried the potential for tree planting at Burn Airfield and joint working with the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) for the development of a low carbon economy.

The Deputy Leader was in attendance at the meeting and confirmed that he would speak on the matter at the Executive meeting in December. In response to a question from the Deputy Leader, Officers confirmed that the 418t carbon footprint of the Council did not include outsourced services.

The Chair of the Committee asked about the impact of these low carbon interventions, and while he supported the action plan he also accepted that the Council was dependent on outside contractors, for services such as waste and recycling, to reach the target of being carbon neutral by 2030. In addition, the Chair expressed concern that by increasing use of green technology and interventions such as solar panels and electric vehicles, the Council would be unwittingly generating carbon elsewhere, for example, in their manufacture.

Officers responded by explaining that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To receive a report on affordable housing in Selby District.

The Committee received a presentation and report from the Housing Service Manager which updated them on the allocation of housing in the district.

Members noted that the North Yorkshire Home Choice Policy was the Council’s policy used to allocate our council owned housing and linked to the wider sub-regional Housing Strategy and Tenancy Strategy, the Homelessness Strategy and our own Tenancy Policy.

Officers explained that the allocations policy was delivered in partnership with other local authorities and registered providers across North Yorkshire, and was is focused on meeting housing need, making the best use of stock and supporting sustainable tenancies. Choice Based Lettings worked by the public advertisement of all available social housing vacancies, allowing applicants to select the home they were interested in through a bidding process.

The Committee noted that there was a single unified ‘housing register’ that covered the whole partnership area and a single policy for determining eligibility to the register and/or determining the level of priority of applicants. The prioritisation of bids for advertised properties was on the basis of priority banding, with bids for properties ranked in order of Housing Need (e.g. priority banding); local connection to the partnership area; household size and time waiting. Councils consulted with housing associations that they had nomination agreements with over new schemes or major changes in policy, and summaries of the allocation scheme had to be published.

Members acknowledged that the policy made it clear that some landlords could restrict who was eligible to bid on some properties; any such restrictions were stated in the advert. There were a number of restrictions, including specially adapted properties for those with an identified physical disability or a mobility need, Section 106 (S106) properties where there was a legal agreement between Local Authorities and developers linked to planning permissions and applicants meeting specific conditions, minimum age criteria, rural area restrictions to applicants with a local connection to a parish, sensitive lets where a landlord could manage specific local housing issues and carry out additional checks on applicants, local letting initiatives that enabled landlords to allocate particular accommodation to people of a particular description, and priority band restrictions in local authority areas of high demand.

The Committee understood that in some cases, properties could not be advertised but offered directly to an applicant; any  such direct offers were approved by a senior manager and were monitored by the North Yorkshire Home Choice Partnership Board on a quarterly basis.

Members had previously expressed concerns around inward migration; as such, Officers acknowledged the importance of the needs of Selby district residents being met and provided feedback on the use of the rural area restrictions. 

Officers gave a presentation which explained further the demand for affordable housing and homelessness across Selby district, affordable housing delivery, the acquisition of empty homes and Right to buy and buy backs, the allocation of affordable housing through North Yorkshire Home Choice, local lettings and the rural area restrictions and the new Affordable Housing Delivery Strategy timeline.

Members were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To consider the Committee’s work programme.

The Committee considered the Policy Review work programme for 2020-21 and asked that the following items be added to it:

·         The consultation report for the preferred options from the Local Plan Programme Board; and

·         The draft Affordable Housing Strategy.

RESOLVED:

                        To amend the work programme for 2020-21 as above.