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Housing schemes to be presented to scrutiny

Published: 05/05/2016

Flintshire County Council’s Community and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee will consider two reports highlighting the successes of the council’s housing schemes next week. The first report seeks scrutiny support to develop council housing on The Walks, Flint for a total cost of £3.95M as part of the Council’s Strategic Housing and Regeneration Programme (SHARP). This is the second housing scheme to be proposed following Custom House in Connah’s Quay. This exciting project, part of a 92 home development, will see 30 new council homes being built on the former maisonettes site and this will give the residents of Flint much more housing choice. Leader of Flintshire County Council, Councillor Aaron Shotton, said: “The Council is committed to ensuring all our residents have decent and appropriate accommodation and living standards. That’s why we are investing in building new council house stock for the first time in a generation.” Following Cabinet approval in June 2012, the Council has been rolling out the Flint Master Plan which sets out a route map for the transformation of Flint, building upon its many assets. It has been prepared by Flintshire County Council in partnership with local residents, local businesses and other key stakeholders. As Flint was originally constructed as a planned town based around a cruciform of streets, the design intent of the architectural proposals seeks to recreate this street pattern. Moving forward, SHARP Council housing schemes including at Maes y Meilion and Heol y Goron, Leeswood and Redhall, Connah’s Quay will be presented to Cabinet in June 2016 for approval to prepare a planning application following planned public consultation events. The second report asks the committee to review and recommend a compliance policy for the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) in Flintshire. Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Helen Brown, said: “We are proud to be able to say that Flintshire will meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standards on or before the deadline of 2020. This is a huge achievement given that back in 2012, the achievement of the standard would only have been possible by 2036. This is due to the hard work and dedication of Flintshire officers and members working together and the desire to provide high quality housing for the tenants in Flintshire.” This Compliance Policy comes on the back of a request from Welsh Government asking all local authorities to produce such a policy for their WHQS properties. The Policy demonstrates Flintshire’s interpretation and application of the WHQS, and compliance with individual components, and its intentions for assessment and verification of achievement of the standard. This policy will respond to the Welsh Government’s request for each landlord to produce a ‘WHQS Compliance Policy’ and a ‘Compliance Certificate’ for each property at point of re-let. A Compliance Certificate has been developed which will be introduced when a property is re-let. The Certificate consists of a list of 41 components that properties are required to comply with to meet the WHQS.