1.    Cabinet acknowledge and accept the donation of eight Solohaus pods from the Hill Group.

2.    Cabinet delegates authority to Director (Housing) in consultation with the Director (Corporate Services) as Section 151 Officer, Monitoring Officer and Cabinet Member for Housing Services to identify a garage site to accommodate the location of the SoloHaus pods and undertake all necessary legal arrangements related to this. 

3.    Cabinet authorises the Director (Corporate Services) to recognise the assets within the council’s financial records and adjust General Fund and Housing Revenue Account revenue budget provisions, accordingly, as proposed in section 5 of the report.

The Director (Housing) advised that, in May 2022, the Cabinet delegated authority to Director (Housing) in consultation with various officers to form an Investment Partnership with a house builder to help accelerate affordable housing delivery within the Borough.

Following a robust tender exercise in September 2022, the Hill Group was selected as the successful partner and since that time, officers had been working hard on setting up the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) including the Members’ agreement, formally known as Gravesham Community Investment Partnership (GCIP) which was incorporated in February 2023.

As set out in the Members’ agreement, the Investment Team must produce an Investment Business Plan within six months of forming the partnership to outline potential delivery over a defined period. An update on the GCIP and Business Plan will be presented to the Cabinet in Autumn.

As part of the tendering exercise, potential contractors were asked to outline how they would achieve social value locally if they were to be successful, to which the Hill Group provided a comprehensive suite of initiatives that could be realised locally and gave an example of how they had worked with local authorities to tackle homelessness both from a financial and social outcome point of view.

To mark the Hill Group’s 20th anniversary, it formed Foundation 200, established to help tackle the homeless crisis and help people rebuild their lives with a commitment to build and gift 200 free purpose-built homes. To cement the newly formed partnership and to mark its commitment to the Borough, the Hill Group has offered to donate eight Solohaus Pods to help tackle homelessness within the Borough.

Solohaus homes are safe, welcoming spaces built to the highest standards of sustainability, efficiency and safety with a 60-year life span. The homes are designed for single occupation and come fully furnished and equipped ready for someone to move in to.

If the Cabinet was minded to accept the Pods, they would be used to complement the Council existing homelessness accommodation in Wrotham Road as move on accommodation, and they will be used as the next step in the person becoming independent and being able to secure a tenancy in the private sector in the future. This in turn will free up much needed bedspace in the existing accommodation for those found to be sleeping rough in the Borough.

For other local authorities that have developed this model, most have used garaged sites within the Council’s ownership. Therefore, two sites registered as Housing Revenue Account assets have been identified and were currently being considered for viability.

In order to release the chosen site for development, the current occupiers of any of the garages will need to be given notice.

Once the site has been agreed, the Hill Group will take forward the scheme and complete all the necessary site investigations, due diligence and submission for planning permission. Once the scheme has been completed, it will be handed back to the Council to manage tenant move in and on-going support for the occupants.

Due to the pods specified use as temporary accommodation, they would need to be an asset owned by the Council’s General Fund. The total capital value of the eight pods is £456,000 based on their fair value (each pod has a retail value of £57,000). The pods will be treated as donated assets for accounting purposes and shown on the Council’s balance sheet under Property, Plant & Equipment. The accounting treatment will be confirmed once further information on any conditions attached to the donation are known.

As the garage sites are a HRA asset and the proposed use would not be a HRA function, the intention will be for a lease to be put in place between the HRA and the General Fund.

The Hill Group will cover any defects to the pods in the first year after installation. Once installed, the Council will be responsible for the operating costs of the pods, including any repairs and maintenance requirements. The total annual running costs had been projected as £5,700 which included a 10% contingency.

The Council’s Section 151 Officer confirmed that she was comfortable for the Council to accept the donation and for it to be shown on the Council’s balance sheet as detailed within the report.

The Leader stated that it was important for the Council to tackle and prevent homelessness and that it had and will continue to put initiatives in place such as securing accommodation for rough sleepers, the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) Project etc. The Leader stated that Prince William had recently launched a major five-year campaign to end homelessness.

Resolved that the Cabinet:-

1.    acknowledge and accept the donation of eight Solohaus pods from the Hill Group;

2.    delegates authority to Director (Housing) in consultation with the Director (Corporate Services) as Section 151 Officer, Monitoring Officer and Cabinet Member for Housing Services to identify a garage site to accommodate the location of the SoloHaus pods and undertake all necessary legal arrangements related to this; and

3.    authorises the Director (Corporate Services) to recognise the assets within the council’s financial records and adjust General Fund and Housing Revenue Account revenue budget provisions, accordingly, as proposed in section 5 of the report.