Place, Regeneration and Housing Committee - Thursday 14 November 2024, 11:00am - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Place, Regeneration and Housing Committee
Thursday, 14th November 2024 at 11:00am 

Agenda

Slides

Transcript

Map

Resources

Forums

Speakers

Votes

 
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
  1. Annette Joseph
  2. Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
  1. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
  1. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
  1. Annette Joseph
  2. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  3. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  4. Annette Joseph
  5. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  6. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  7. Annette Joseph
  8. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  9. Annette Joseph
  10. Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Richard Butterfield, Advisory Representative (Historic England)
  12. Annette Joseph
  13. Stephen Moore
  14. Lisa Littlefair (Private Sector Representative)
  15. Stephen Moore
  16. Stephen Moore
  17. Annette Joseph
  18. Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board)
  19. Annette Joseph
  20. Cllr Jessica Lennox
  21. Annette Joseph
  22. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  23. Richard Butterfield, Advisory Representative (Historic England)
  24. Annette Joseph
  25. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  26. Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board)
  27. Annette Joseph
  28. Mr Tamsin Hart Jones (Private Sector Representative)
  29. Annette Joseph
  30. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  31. Annette Joseph
  32. Ms. Katie Kavanagh
  33. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
  1. Ms. Katie Kavanagh
  2. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Lisa Littlefair (Private Sector Representative)
  4. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  5. Cllr Ben Burton (York Council)
  6. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Richard Butterfield, Advisory Representative (Historic England)
  8. Andy Wallhead, Advisory Representative (WY Housing Partnership)
  9. Annette Joseph
  10. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Annette Joseph
  12. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  13. Annette Joseph
  14. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  15. Annette Joseph
  16. Ms. Katie Kavanagh
  17. Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  18. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  19. Annette Joseph
  20. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  21. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  22. Annette Joseph
  23. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  24. Annette Joseph
  25. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  26. Ms. Katie Kavanagh
  27. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  28. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  29. Annette Joseph
  30. Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council)
  31. Annette Joseph
  32. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  33. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  34. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  35. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  36. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  37. Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  38. Annette Joseph
  39. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  40. Mr Tamsin Hart Jones (Private Sector Representative)
  41. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
  1. Hannah Andrew, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Presentation Slides
  3. Annette Joseph
  4. Cllr Ben Burton (York Council)
  5. Annette Joseph
  6. Hannah Andrew, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Annette Joseph
  8. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  9. Hannah Andrew, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative)
  11. Annette Joseph
  12. Cllr Jessica Lennox
  13. Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  15. Annette Joseph
  16. Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board)
  17. Annette Joseph
  18. Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  19. Annette Joseph
  20. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  21. Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  22. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
  1. Ms. Katie Kavanagh
  2. Annette Joseph
  3. Andy Wallhead, Advisory Representative (WY Housing Partnership)
  4. Ms. Katie Kavanagh
  5. Annette Joseph
  6. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
  1. Annette Joseph
  2. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  3. Annette Joseph
  4. Annette Joseph
  5. Annette Joseph
  6. Annette Joseph
  7. Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board)
  8. Annette Joseph
  9. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  10. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  12. Annette Joseph
  13. Cllr Ben Burton (York Council)
  14. Annette Joseph
  15. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  16. Annette Joseph
  17. Stephen Moore
  18. Annette Joseph
  19. Annette Joseph
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
  1. Webcast Finished

1 Apologies for Absence

Annette Joseph - 0:00:12
Good morning everybody. Good to see you. So this is my first time chairing the board as
Councillor Jeffries is unable to be with us today. So if I get a little bit confused with
the formalities just kind of be patient with me. So we're going to start off with apologies
for absence.
Myles Larrington, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:00:40
Annette Joseph - 0:00:45
Can any members please highlight any declarations of interest?

2 Declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

Thank you.
No.

3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

And in terms of exempt information, there's no items requiring exclusion of the press and public today on the agenda.
Annette Joseph - 0:01:26
So, Councillor Rosha has just arrived, so you've just had your apologies read, so we'll
take that back in a minute.

4 Minutes of the Meeting held on 30 May 2024

So the minutes attached are from the 30th of May 2024 meeting, this was the last formal
meeting of the committee as a previous meeting on the 11th of July was a
private meeting can we agree to the minutes from the 30th of May so the
chairs update quite a significant chairs of that this time because it's starting
with the structure highlights from the autumn budget and so we're sure she will
receive a single settlement from 2026 alongside new local growth plans

5 Chair's Update

continued UK shared prosperity fund though reduced, leveling up fund projects
and sustained commitment to local transport and infrastructure, cost of
living, health and well -being, income tax threshold will align with inflation
starting April 2028, the household support fund is extended with 1 million
will 1 billion pounds and the national minimum wage will increase by up to 6 .7
from April 2025 benefiting many in West Yorkshire. Transport, a significant
investment of 1 billion pounds for buses, a reaffirmed commitment to the
Trans -Pennine route, additional funding for local transport and a continued
focus on the West Yorkshire mass transit project. Housing, planning and
regeneration, the Affordable Homes Programme receives a 5 million pound top -up,
Councils retain right to buy sales and investment in decarbonizing homes is increased under the warm homes plan
We've also received a letter from Ukraine
So the mayor recently received a letter from the governor of Kiev which outlines an interest in strengthening international
cooperation between West Yorkshire and Kiev region in a number of areas
first is economic development and investment
fostering innovation, supporting SMEs and facilitating investment and business connections.
Tourism, collaborating on tourism infrastructure.
Education and science, creating student and researcher exchange programs.
Culture and art, organizing cultural events, exhibitions and artistic exchanges.
Ecology and sustainable development, launching joint environmental protection initiatives.
initiatives and also health care enabling health care. So enabling knowledge exchange.
The ask is that we consider the proposals outlined and establish cooperation and
partnership between Kiev region and West Yorkshire.
Would anyone like to comment on the update?

6 Governance Arrangements

Annette Joseph - 0:04:32
So moving on to item six governance arrangements, the report provides an update on the governance
arrangements for the players regeneration housing committee as approved by the West
Yorkshire combined authority.
It's annual meeting on the 20th of June 2024 key points include the committee's terms of
reference, quorum requirements and the appointment of Councillor Denise Jeffries as chair and Annette Joseph as deputy.
Membership details and voting arrangements are outlined in attached appendices.
Meeting dates have been confirmed for 2024 -2025.
This is the first public meeting since the annual meeting, offering an opportunity to note these governance arrangements for transparency.
So the recommendation is that the committee members to note the update.

7 Monitoring Indicators

So moving on to monitoring indicators. The purpose of this item is to provide an update on the relevant monitoring indicators and report on their performance to support the work of the committee.
I'll hand over to Peter Glover for the update. Thank you, Peter.
Thank you chair. So within your packs you find this item is covered from page 17 of the pack and there's also an appendix that starts at page 25.
So just building what the chair said, the background to this is that we provide a regular update and monitoring indicators.
And we've selected indicators that we believe are most relevant to the remit of the committee and they're intended to inform discussion and they're also linked into subsequent agenda items.
The indicators are mostly drawn from the State of the Region and the West Yorkshire Plan.
However we do have an additional indicator that's considered in the current report relating to local housing allowance.
And that reflects a request for information from the committee at a previous meeting.
So reporting is by exception, so we're focused on indicators for which new data has become available since the last meeting.
and what we're looking at this time are private rents, local housing allowance rates, house prices, fuel poverty and a couple of indicators relating to digital infrastructure.
And so very briefly some key messages. So on private rents we've seen a trend in recent years where private rents in West Yorkshire have grown faster than the national average, driven mainly by leads.
but rent, the level of rent is still well below the national average. Looking at the last year specifically,
rents grew at a faster rate than inflation across the region and also grew faster than the growth in average wages.
And that was particularly the case in Bradford and Kirklees. So what we highlight in the paper is a cost of living challenge
that that trend presents, particularly for low income households. At the request of the committee we also looked at,
We also provide an analysis of local housing allowance rates in West Yorkshire, comparing
them with rental values and you can see from the paper that there is a gap between the
two and further commentary on that within the paper.
Turning to West Yorkshire house prices, we can also see a convergence or signs of convergence
between house prices in West Yorkshire and the national average. Leeds is now above the
national average in terms of average house prices and Bradford, Kirklees and Wakefield
outpaced the national average with regard to annual growth in house prices in 23 to
24 year. We've also updated our estimates of fuel poverty, the Combined Thorates updated
these estimates. This measures the number of households that spend more than 10 % of
income after tax and housing costs on energy bills. So we've updated them to take out
the latest energy price information for October. The big caveat that we do highlight is we
can't factor in the effect of changes to the winter fuel allowance. But what we find
is that the prevalence of fuel poverty remains above what was seen before the energy crisis
hit in 2022 and the prevalence is also similar to April 2024's figure. So at nearly 27 % it's
around 7 points above the national average. And then finally turning to digital infrastructure,
West Yorkshire performs, West Yorkshire continues to perform strongly. So we've got 92 % of
premises that have gigabit capable internet coverage in the region and that's well above
national average of 85%, 83 % ash full fibre and that compares with 70 % nationally. And
then finally looking at 4G mobile coverage, 92 % of premises of indoor coverage from all
providers compare with 86 % nationally. So that concludes my summary chair. I'm back
to you.
Thank you, Peter.
And somebody have any comments?
Annette Joseph - 0:09:34
Thanks, Chair.
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 0:09:42
I'll just make a quick comment, which is that this is really useful information.
The rent inflation is perhaps in some – by some measures a positive thing for West Yorkshire,
I would say that the impact of rent inflation on housing demand and in particular housing
demand in social rented sector means that we need to concentrate collectively on increasing
supply of social rented houses, not just affordable houses and a lot of the talk is about increasing
affordable supply. That will reduce some of the pressure but
certainly in Kirklees where I'm responsible for housing it's social rent that we absolutely
need to focus on. So I just wanted to make sure that was forefront.
Thank you.
Thank you chair. I just wanted to
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 0:10:28
highlight that fuel poverty data.
I mean, it's astonishing, not perhaps surprising, but it's really frustrating that that's so high.
And that, you know, again, I suppose it's a similar
comment in terms of
focusing his awesome programs on upgrading and
you know, trying to tackle it, but it's
you know, it's
incredible.
Surely, you know, it's so high.
You know, I don't think we can just
hear it and then just gloss over it really.
I don't know what to do about it.
Sarah?
Yeah, thank you.
Annette Joseph - 0:11:23
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:11:24
So, yeah, I mean, I think that it is a really big thing and I know that, like in Colvedale
and well across the region, we're looking at retrofitting and there's been a lot of
retrofitting going on, but, and I know that, you know, I can only speak for Colvedale,
I know that other areas of the Combined Authority region have some similar problems around the
type of housing, you know, old stone terraces that are really difficult to insulate, you
and the retrofitting is really intrusive so you might have programs of it but
actually that's really difficult so I know that we're sort of working we're
working with one of our registered providers to look at sort of retrofitting
social housing as well you know to help combat that because obviously while that
is positive for our climate goals it's also really important in terms of
reducing bills we know that you've got a well insulated house it doesn't cost as
much to heat it is really it is but it is really difficult and I don't you know
So I think with all the retrofit, it's not quick to do though is it, all of that retrofitting
and it's quite expensive.
I mean we have done quite a lot in Colesdale but I think it's like, it's you know, ten
grand per house plus.
I think you know, it's not a quick fix is it?
I don't know, I don't know what the solution is other than getting energy prices down.
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 0:12:41
Well yeah, I think we just need to send a message back up to the mayor and back up to
government that we need money to deliver new affordable and social entities but we do need
programs and big funding programs to sort out the retrofit. I think that's all we can
ask isn't it? Otherwise it's not going to happen for those people in those types of
houses.
I think I saw somewhere in the report as well that the retrofits are being affected by the
lack of skills, that there aren't enough people to do it, so perhaps that's something
Annette Joseph - 0:13:13
that we can focus on as well to try to get the skills up in the region so that we can
do more.
Because I'm a bit of a newbie to a lot of these committees, but I do
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:13:26
sit on the economy
I think it's a bit of a short notice, but I don't know if this committee has a function
where it can send reports through to the other committees or ask questions for that to be
looked at.
I mean, you know, because, and that's the thing, isn't it?
All of these things are so massively integrated.
You know, if you look at, you know, sort of economy,
health, public transport, you know, the climate emergency,
everything is so intertwined and interconnected.
But I mean, I, you know, yeah, that was just a question,
really, if we can sort of officially do that.
And we'll see.
Yes we can do that, that's fine.
Annette Joseph - 0:14:24
Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:14:26
We can pass that back and we do look at the synergies across the committees.
But we do also today have an item on your agenda at item 11.
We're going to look at the climate and environment plan, the emerging plan and share some of the information about the emerging priorities that are particularly relevant to this committee's agenda.
So that would be another opportunity to pick up that conversation about retrofit
Richard
Yes, so, um historic England
We're keeping a close eye on the kind of skills requirements with
Richard Butterfield, Advisory Representative (Historic England) - 0:14:56
historic buildings
And we've just published a report in September on the kind of I suppose retrofit skills
needed for doing historic buildings because obviously there's an extra layer of
Insight that's required in order to do that perhaps
circulate that report around perhaps go out with the minutes and it might also
be relevant for the skills meeting tomorrow as well. Thank you very much.
Anybody else?
Annette Joseph - 0:15:26
Thank you chair. Just to mention that obviously that whole issue with
interlinked was and was recognized as a tutor shortage in further education to
Stephen Moore - 0:15:37
be able to actually teach the skills that are required. Now we're ranging into
of the skills discussion, but just to say that there are those of us
Lisa Littlefair (Private Sector Representative) - 0:15:43
in the private
sector working with Michelle and the skills team to sort of think about that as well,
just to provide some reassurance that it's aware, you know, we're aware of it and we're
trying to get some action.
Thank you.
Stephen, please.
It was just in relation to the fuel poverty in particular, and we did think we talked
Stephen Moore - 0:16:13
in this previous meeting about, outside of what it means
in isolation, what's the result of that on things like,
you know, the support structure in hospitals, et cetera,
as a result, because as stark as it seems on its own,
when we talk about, or if we want to talk about
justifying budgets for something or subsidies
or anything else, understanding the wider impact of that
has got to be vital because otherwise would we just be porting it to one area and then we're not able to
Proactively do something with it somewhere else. Do is it possible to get any kind of cause and effect data?
So we could say the 20 % how that might influence other, you know, the services
So I think I think a few a few meetings ago we did we got the same request and we did produce a sort of additional
analysis looking at the sort of, trying to look at the health impacts as well of fuel poverty. So there is some previous information that we can refer to but it's something that we can probably look at further.
In sort of conjunction with colleagues from the health sector on the public health side. But we did a certain amount of analysis. I think we found that in terms of the correlation between fuel poverty and
sort of health effects. It's complicated by the fact that we've got a relatively young
population and therefore it's not reflected at the sort of aggregate level so much, but
yeah, there was some additional analysis beyond that as well, but we can say and look at that
in more detail.
Yeah, I just think that, I think that would be useful, even if it's just, you know, we've
acknowledged this, so what are we going to do about it? You know, from us as a committee
perspective, I think as Ben's, you know, highlighted very articulately, it's, it feels like we've
like what do you need from us what are we what are we going to do as a next step for
this in case somebody raises that question and at least closing often say you know it
can or it can't justify something else I think is important but thanks.
Stephen Moore - 0:18:16
I'm going to go to Cathy next because I know that you're going to talk about this specific
Annette Joseph - 0:18:22
point and then I'll come to you Alex.
Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board) - 0:18:26
Thank you chair good morning I'm Cathy Elliott I'm chair of NHS West Yorkshire apologies
for being late.
We did look at this data, didn't we?
And we have got an example where we started about two, three
years ago between West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership
and the Combined Authority and local government looking
at fuel poverty.
At the time, that began with a grant scheme,
so really focusing on priority households.
I think we can do something much more sophisticated now.
We have, starting with this month,
achieved digital information officers
across the whole of health and care,
So that whole system, tentrust, primary care of dentists,
community pharmacists and GPs.
And I think this is an opportunity
on how we can cross reference that.
So how is that there for, I think the point you're making
is how's this turning up perhaps in hospitals
and A &E up the road?
How is this turning up for in GP surgeries?
And I think there's something further we could do
with the combined authority between the NHS
and combined authority looking at your home energy
West Yorkshire that that home insulation piece of work so the prevention piece of
work and seeing the spectrum of actions that need to come out of that. I think
there's something I shared at a previous meeting about winter planning. We're
always planning for surges in demand for services in the NHS but I think
there's also something around winter planning as well and one of the reasons
why I'm on this committee. So if we could take that as an action I think to work
with Jen Connolly who has a dual public health role with the Combined
and Authority and ourselves and the NHS.
And I'd want to bring in our new chief digital information
officer to see how we can combine the data that we've
got to see what that tells us.
But your point is therefore, what action do we take on that?
Because I know, I think, I'm thinking aloud here,
but our colleagues who are working on health and care
in Leeds have a population health board.
They focus on communities and certain families
to provide support because they look at health data.
about how do we lay this further information on as well. So Leeds might be a population
health board, might be a good start to look at further action. Thank you. Thank you Cathy.
Annette Joseph - 0:20:35
I'm going to go to Alex next and then to Sarah and Richard. Thank you. Thank you, yeah. Just
Cllr Jessica Lennox - 0:20:42
going back to the skills a bit a little as well. I think one of the things you get sometimes
as well with central governments is they go through a bit of feast and famine kind of
approaches where one government will announce a load of money and then it can't be delivered
on the ground because you haven't got planners to do planning things, you haven't got engineers
or whichever sector it is that they keep doing. I think there was a short electrification
of rail lines for instance, it's like the bizarre one, but in countries where they just
constantly have a general programme that runs like that, they've got the skills first, they
do it efficiently and it all works. Whereas in Britain, one government say right we're
all going to do it, they announce 20 billion, it turns into a quagmire because you haven't
got the skills, you haven't got the experience, so we go right we're not going to do it again.
then 20 years later they go let's go back and try it again and they haven't got their steady state
and it's better to have a kind of constant theme so I think probably through the Combine Authority in the May
it's like Fellershaw, Ed Miliband has announced a retro, a big retrofit scheme
but it's making sure that underpinning that, that it's not three billion just for the outcome
or the output as it were, it's for the skills so that you have a steady kind of development of the
skills sector as well because otherwise it'll be harder to deliver on the ground and on on fuel
poverty just one little point of interest in as you break down those
statistics I remember we looked at say 20 deprivation factors or whatever at our
local constituency in Bradford in Shipley and as you can imagine it tracks
fairly standard across all these different deprivation factors except
fuel poverty and that was the one area where the least deprived ward was quite
high because it was stone properties, large stone properties where people might have been
asset rich cash poor living in a big house that they couldn't insulate. And then how
do you create a program that picks that up because naturally actually if you've got very
limited resources you want to target on the most deprived area because that's where it's
going to add the biggest value but then you might leave behind an area which actually
has quite a high incidence of fuel poverty but it's in a less deprived area. That's a
really tricky thing when you've got very limited resources and it's not necessarily that we'd
be doing it the wrong way to target it on those deprived areas, but it'd be interesting
to break down those stats and just be, at least be aware when we develop programs locally
I guess.
Thank you Alex. Sarah?
Yeah, thank you. I mean maybe having, you know, if we sort of are moving towards an
Annette Joseph - 0:23:07
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:23:10
aggregated settlement where we can look at, you know, what other, rather than go lurching
from sort of project to project, which might be favored
by the government of the day, actually.
So if we can look through our individual authorities
and then across the region as a combined authority,
actually what are our priorities, what are our needs?
And then fund those rather than be told,
oh, you've got some money for this,
and then scrabble to find what are the projects that fit it.
And I think, so for example, I know that one of our
and I can't remember if it's in from pillar three or pillar two off the top of my head,
but they've been going in, it's quite a small organisation, they've been going in retrofitting
old buildings with sort of more sustainable technologies and going into old buildings,
but they've been running those as courses so that they're delivering the skills and
teaching those sort of people so they're providing retrofitting for sort of a community centre
or whatever whilst also teaching people how to do that so sort of upskilling as well as
delivering but that's because they've been able to sort of mould their project to that
bit of funding that came in and actually it'd be, which is great and that's a really nice
it's a really nice project but actually it'd be really good to sort of for us to be able
to say what is it we need and then can we just fund that and the different ways that
and then we can be creative about the different ways that we fund it.
I think also though looking at just sort of like around just looking at the private rents
and stuff, I think the current analysis on private rents maybe would benefit from a more
precise assessment of changes in the supply and location to guide future
housing policies at the moment apparently and maybe colleagues can help
help with this small landlords are reportedly exiting the market due to
legislative pressures reduced tax incentives and high maintenance costs
but it's unclear whether their properties are then being sold to owner
occupiers or to larger landlords I think in Colesdale we're gathering data with
Council tax colleagues to track the tenure of changes but I just think it'd
be really useful to know what like what is going on in order to help shape
housing policy.
Thank you. Richard? I'd just like to come back on on Cathy's point if I if I may
Richard Butterfield, Advisory Representative (Historic England) - 0:25:46
really I think it's really interesting I suppose starting the conversation that
started off with the you know the impacts of fuel poverty is sort of a
poverty context, then we've kind of moved on to health impacts.
But I just wonder if there's more that this committee needs
to do just to really sort of work out
where we want to be going with this.
Because a lot of the retrofit is very much
focused on terms of net zero.
But I think it'd be really heartened
by the combined authorities' work around just creating
better homes for people.
I think that point comes back with the health impacts,
doesn't it because fuel poverty can have an impact in terms of damp homes which
can lead to respiratory diseases, it can lead to the old people being
kind of just sort of cold and unwell and so on as well. So it feels like
it's quite a nuanced conversation here and I think there are all
sorts of ways in which sort of better homes can make people
make people better.
It would be interesting, certainly from the health point
of view, I did wonder if there's any statistical analysis to see
what kind of home -related health issues are coming through
and whether there are any differences across West
Yorkshire even, given the quite varied and different kinds
of housing stock that we've got in each of the local authority
areas.
It would be interesting to see the effect of green space
Annette Joseph - 0:27:23
on that as well and how that affects people's health.
Ben?
Thank you, I think Councillor Courtney
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 0:27:29
had a bit of a useful question.
I mean, I think anecdotally, I think the private farm lords
are selling to owner -occupiers
because the institutional investors
obviously want complete blocks.
I think a larger sort of private landlords or you know amateur landlords want that expression
I think they would prefer houses and and the
legislation around building Safety Act ground rents is
Absolutely killing and taxes. It's absolutely killing that sort of
amateur landlord
Market in the flattered sector. So take that we take sensitive for instance. I think that's the issue
So, you know, people will take houses to rent but not so much flats, I think.
Cathy?
Thank you.
Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board) - 0:28:29
So, I agree we can – it's a piece of work we started.
I think we need to go back to looking at respiratory diseases as you outlined.
We've just done a focus as NHS restructure on childhood asthma as well and the need for
and the mayor is working on in terms of clean air initiatives.
So we can take that away and if you haven't quite been tracking what's going on in the
NHS at the moment, one of the big shifts from the new government is around neighbourhood
healthcare.
So I think this aligns so well.
We've got lots of great examples in all your constituency areas of how neighbourhood healthcare
works between the voluntary sector, local authorities, social care and the NHS, but
We're trying to bring together a framework of how the best practice is established and
then people in their communities can take that away.
And it was a big announcement from the Secretary of State for Health and Care yesterday about
neighborhood health care being a priority.
So this aligns really, really well strategically.
But to your point, we need to take some action about this as well, rather than just admiring
the problem.
So I think it's a good opportunity for us at the moment.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Annette Joseph - 0:29:43
It's a really interesting discussion isn't it as well about actually
Mr Tamsin Hart Jones (Private Sector Representative) - 0:29:44
the value of investment
and what investment can do to address some of those particular challenges.
So the work we're doing within Homes England around social values, so social values now
one of our key performance indicators.
So we've got a programme of research led by our economist with MHCLG around how can we
capture the benefit of a number of different interventions, so whether that's remediating
in Brownfield sites. We recently did a piece around older persons' accommodation and capturing
the benefits of that to be able to make the case for investment and I think there's something
really interesting that we should be exploring further and I can have a conversation with
our economist to see is there something that we're doing around what's the value of investing
in housing regeneration to health benefits specifically and how can we capture that and
then use that as a part of the case for investment, more investment in housing and regeneration.
Annette Joseph - 0:30:46
Thank you, that would be really helpful. Any more questions? I've got a question that's
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:30:54
just sort of, and it might be, well I'm sort of guessing that this isn't being monitored
because it's not part of the remit of the Westchurch Combined Authority, but I don't
know if it would be useful as a monitoring statistic just in terms of sort of like, you
if we're looking at a more holistic way, but anything about homelessness and about people who
are not, you know, who are finding themselves without homes. You know, we're talking about
housing, but the quality of housing which is all really important, but I just wondered is that,
how does that, how does that fit in? And I know, I know that, so obviously as local authorities,
we have responsibility for housing homeless people, that's not a West Yorkshire combined
authority function and I get I get that difference but but does that not have
does that sort of as a stat not have an impact on homes delivery
Annette Joseph - 0:31:55
Katie? So we we are doing some work at the moment with the West Yorkshire
Ms. Katie Kavanagh - 0:31:57
Homelessness Forum to explore options for a role that the combined authority might play in that I'd say it's probably
Early on in that process, but but there's a lot of them a lot of interest in exploring
And how how these factors sort of into play with each other?
Thank you
Great conversation
Annette Joseph - 0:32:26
So moving on, so the committee to members note the messages from the indicators.
So moving on to item 8, housing delivery.

8 Housing Delivery

The purpose of this report is to update the committee on housing activity following its approval of the West Yorkshire Housing Strategy.
The report updates the committee on existing activity and outlines the option for future activity.
I'll hand over to Katie Cavanagh again for the update. Thank you Katie. Thank you
chair. So we'll take the paper as read but I'll provide a brief summary and
Ms. Katie Kavanagh - 0:32:59
then pass on to Patricia to update on the Brownfield Housing Fund. We're at the
midpoint in the committee cycle and this paper is an update following the private
session back in June. The past few months brought about a series of significant
changes affecting housing delivery. The proposed changes to the National Planning
policy framework would bring about an increase of approximately 15 % in housing delivery targets
to West Yorkshire and alongside the budget announcements already discussed there were
also welcome announcements and changes to might buy and a potential rent settlement
for social housing which may help increase the certainty for social housing providers
to plan their investments. All this little times with us moving into the delivery phase
of the West Yorkshire Housing Strategy setting key tasks and milestones that we
can measure our progress against over the next three years. One of our key
areas of focus is delivery against the mayor's pledge to deliver 5 ,000
affordable homes over the next term. According to data collected from the
West Yorkshire Housing Partnership there is a robust pipeline of affordable
homes across the region however at the moment only around two -thirds of the
The report details some of the key items of work relating to housing delivery, including affordable housing studies for each local authority,
which feed into some of the proposed actions to boost delivery.
Our work on viability assessments and the housing accelerator fund, which is supporting progress towards investment and delivery on 39 sites,
which creates to over 11 ,000 homes, of which around 2 ,900 will be affordable.
A series of options for further work are outlined in the report, and we will be happy to take these on these.
However, they will need to form part of a wider conversation on resource and capacity.
I will now pass over to Patricia to provide an update on the Brownfield Housing Program.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:34:53
So, as you will know, the £89 million Brownfield Fund is the only capital program the Combined
Authority has for delivering homes.
It was to bring forward new homes on developments of brownfield sites where market values presented
the schemes from coming forward previously.
The Brownfield housing fund is now its fifth and final year. The report
highlights that as a time of writing combined authorities committed funding
for 28 projects which equates to over 5 ,400 new homes including 1 ,830 affordable homes.
The program is currently on track to exceed the minimum target of outputs for
homes set by government. However, achieving the maximum spend target has
always been a challenge due to the stringent criteria set by government for
of the fund along with impacts of economic conditions onto the private sector market.
Discussions are ongoing with offices from MHCLG and the potential around flexibilities
of the funding in this final year. In parallel to that, detailed discussions are also being
discussed with Homes England on a transformational project for the region which, subject to government
response, will start to move things forward through the assurance process.
So I've got them on the brown field if there's any questions.
Councillor
I've seen you put your hand up so it was almost, I wanted to come to you Andy for a question
anyway.
I think the biggest challenge over the last year for affordable housing delivery has been
kind of the health of housing association budgets and what they're feeling able to deliver
with where funding's been at.
Lisa Littlefair (Private Sector Representative) - 0:36:28
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 0:36:30
I get mixed views speaking to housing associations over the last month of where they feel they're
Cllr Ben Burton (York Council) - 0:36:33
that now post the budget and I know that you chair the group I'd be interested to see what your view is on where you think people are standing in terms of capacity to deliver coming to this last year.
Okay, you're happy to come back on that. I think it is mixed. That's
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:36:48
pretty why you're getting different responses. I think it depends. I think all associations in a slightly different place. I think the
Richard Butterfield, Advisory Representative (Historic England) - 0:36:55
larger ones are probably in a better place, the larger ones like ourselves are probably in a better place.
So we haven't slowed down.
In fact, we've accelerated our new homes.
I think we're in Yorkshire and together
Andy Wallhead, Advisory Representative (WY Housing Partnership) - 0:37:03
and a few others are probably in a similar position to us.
But I think smaller associations are feeling the squeeze.
And it's kind of highlighted in this paper.
Actually, it talks about the trade -off,
which we talked about earlier between
improving existing homes and building new homes.
I think most boards want to do more of both,
but there's a realism to that
and how much money they've got available.
I think the announcements that are highlighted in this paper, is it 3 .6, are all really positive
actually. So additional 500 million top up for the existing Affordable Homes programme.
I'm guessing that's national, isn't it? That's national.
That's national, yeah.
I mean it's helpful, so nobody's going to knock it. It probably doesn't equate to that many homes actually
when you start to break it actually down and look at it regionally. But it's got to be welcomed.
but I think the government have indicated that that's kind of the start and that as
part of a more comprehensive spending review likely in spring that there could be more
so it could be more over a longer period of time and I think that's what associations
need it's a longer term certainty that a programme will give so 500 million of course is welcome
because I think some associations particularly smaller ones have started to slow down their
new build programme that might enable them to keep going in the short term but what we
really need is certainty up to really 2030 now because when you start looking at a scheme
today it probably takes three, four, five years before you are really going to actually
deliver anything on the ground. I think the other thing that this talks about
right by receipts, that's a step in the direction. I think most associations would say it probably
doesn't go far enough because when we talk about delivering new homes, I think somebody
mentioned last time we were here about Leeds had a record year in terms of delivering affordable
new homes last year, 2000, their net position was two. So there are two extra affordable
homes at the end of the year than there was at the start because they'd lost 1998 effectively
through right to buy or right to acquire and that's what matters, that's what gets people
off the housing list, it's the net additional. Not I've built you one here but I've taken
six away over there, that's no good to anybody. So we do, you know, it's very controversial
because it's, you know, everybody, the people who've been here, there are individuals benefiting
from the right to buy but if you're talking about the affordable, you know, the supply of
affordable homes then it's not a great policy. So I think we probably in a sector think that
needs to go further but this will help. And then the final thing around the rent settlement,
that makes a huge difference. Every association's business plan will be really sensitive to the
rent increase. So I know ours, we'd assumed up until the government's announcement, we'd assumed
that we would get CPI plus one until April 2028, 2026 and then only CPI after that. Now
the government have announced, well they are going to do a consultation, once that position
is confirmed we will adjust our assumptions. If we adjusted it for CPI plus one just in
the period from 2026 to 2030 it has something like 40 or 50 million to our 40 year business
plan. So, and if that's for us, imagine what that will do nationally, it pales into the
significance of the 500 million that's available through the, so certainty around the rent
settlement is crucial. So all those things, there's nothing really further to add but
hopefully that gives you a bit of context as to why those things matter.
I was, the question I was going to ask was around the Brownfield Land Programme and you
know we're saying it's in its final year, I know a lot of associations have benefited
from that and you mentioned the numbers, is there anything planned beyond that? Because
again we're going to have to stop starting if we're not careful, we'll all stop looking
at Brownfield sites and looking at Greenfield and none of us really want to do that but
we just wondered what's been said to government about continuing that.
We're currently in discussions with MHLG about future potential funding but there has been
Annette Joseph - 0:40:58
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:40:59
no commitment as yet but there have been discussions that something, and there is always that Brownfield
first approach that's being given on that but also should any future funds be
default to us that might be able to us you know under the single segment that
also might be able to submit funding more flexible and for our local needs
and change the approach that we've been given on the brownfield one
thank you yeah thank you I've sort of got three sort of questions on different
Annette Joseph - 0:41:33
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:41:35
areas if that's okay so I'm sorry about that. I'm not apologizing that's why I'm here isn't it.
So firstly on the housing accelerator fund so I know Colesdale would be secured nearly 800 ,000
pounds worth of grant funding which is brilliant which increased our capacity within planning and
housing strategy and the growth team has provided really invaluable supports delivery of the garden
communities which are coming up and it's supported disposal of council owned local plan sites
including the North Halifax transformation program.
Is there any chance of the fund to be extended further to support the
delivery of housing within Colterdale? We've got
no internal budget to spend to unlock housing sites
and therefore the half and previous housing revenue fund have been crucial
to supporting housing delivery in Colterdale. That's my first question.
Shall I carry on? Shall I go with all three and then you can come back to me?
Annette Joseph - 0:42:28
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:42:31
Yes please. So the next one is the options for further work and that's my
comment or question around that is around packaging sites for viability
purposes. So in Colterdale we mostly have smaller site sites.
Obviously if we can package them together that helps with viability
because that's more attractive to housing providers especially
be sort of large developers and RPs, which means then that we can get the smaller sites
delivered if they're packaged together. However, that causes greater management operational
costs as well, so it's sort of good to have them together, but actually that is more expensive
for us than if we just had one site. So it increases the complexity of the scheme delivery
for us as a local authority and therefore the costs. So the North Halifax Transformation
partnership program was an example of that with three sites packaged together. So it
did appeal to a large developer. So just sort of would ask for financial support for management
of those sorts of things, of packaging sites together if that's possible, in order to allow
us to allow us and other local authorities, obviously not just in Caulfdale, but other
local authorities are going to be in the same position. And then the third thing
was the Brownfield Housing Fund. We had a real challenge, so we've got we've got
one really good site where we got 2 .1 million pounds worth of funding from the
BHF. It's progressing well, we've got a nice efficient 122 unit apartment
building with 60 % improvement in carbon reduction beyond latest regulations.
that's great but we've had some real problems with land around sort of land value cost ratio
the cost ratio benefit and it's been a real sort of limiting factor on the amount of grant that
a scheme could receive so yeah so on -site affordable housing was found to be unviable
on some areas. So we support greater flexibility in how this criteria can be applied and then
also we've had some problems with the identification of brownfield land and what the definition
is within the national planning policy framework, Annex 2, and it meant that a site that had
been previously developed and had historically contained extensive areas of housing ended
up being defined as a greenfield site in the local plan because it had to stick
with NP PF so despite being able to evidence that there was development
previously it didn't meet the criteria so I guess is there is there a way that
we can you know that the combined authority can help shape that in order
to make sure that we're not losing out on those sites that were brown foot that
were technically were really brown filled but then reclassified as green filled.
Annette Joseph - 0:45:37
Katie, thank you.
And to you.
Ms. Katie Kavanagh - 0:45:47
So probably taking the first two points together because I think it's probably fairly interrelated.
We would like to see an extension to the HAF programme and part of that involves developing
and evidence based to demonstrate that there's still continued need for it.
Projects like the packaging of sites would theoretically fit quite well within that and
it's certainly something that should be discussed in the round with the local authority teams
that are working on this and we have asked for some of those options to be put to us
so that we can have that evidence base there,
appreciating that at the moment there's
no commitment to an extension on the program.
I don't know, Alison, if you wanted me to say anything more
on that.
That covers it for now.
There's nothing further to say at this point.
I think we are in conversation about how
Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:46:48
we prioritize future funding, given there are so
many competing pressures.
But yeah, the evidence is what we need in order
to be able to make the case.
I'll pick up on the queries about Brownfield. The challenge of land
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:47:02
values around the region
has always been raised and we've raised that from the first year of the programme with
central government and the issues around the VCR which was set by government. That is not
being allowed to change but they have listened and have assured us that they have taken on
for future funding and the impacts of that.
I think we'd still have to achieve something
they've said at a programme level,
but there might be that small flex within
to be able to do, to look at those issues.
But yeah, Hans, this is what was mentioned earlier
about the constraints that have been given us
to deliver within that programme.
Again, if future funding's devolved to us,
we'd have more flexibility in terms of establishing
those rules, hopefully, depending on how the money's
being given by government.
The issue regarding what is deemed brownfield, yes it goes with the policy in the FP and
I fully understand and that has been again one of the issues that's been raised centrally
with government on that and I believe that you know looking into that sort of greyfield
kind of policy which is that low quality that we know underneath the ground there is contamination
there's pipe work whatever else is existing from previous developments but unfortunately
because of the criteria of the fund currently we have been unable to fund
those projects again if funding was given or we've got more flexibility and
have a combined Authority funding we could look to establish those who
various other different mechanism and funding pots so it might be that we can
create those depending on what's being given in a single settlement in the
future
Thank you, Patricia.
Councillor Crooke.
Thank you, Chair.
Annette Joseph - 0:48:41
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 0:48:43
I guess I'll just very quickly repeat my concern about social and versus affordable,
because when we talk about loss of homes to ride to buy, a lot of that is the social rented component.
If we're looking at a net increase of two homes in Leeds, for example, in affordable,
We've lost that particular segment of the housing market which serves the most vulnerable
in our communities.
In Kirklees, so the maximum right to buy discount was 85ish thousand pounds before it would
be reduced to 24 ,000 pounds.
We're yet to find out how that will impact receipts from sales, whether that will stop
right to buy receipts or whether we will actually gain some revenue that we're able to do something
with is a moot point.
But the question I wanted to ask really was around the brownfield housing fund.
It says in 3 .37 should future capital funds be devolved as part of single settlement,
our ability to tailor programs and so on.
What I want to know is can we ensure that programs that we subsidize or fund adhere to higher performance standards
compared to the national minimum standards.
So I think you mentioned in one of the developments that you've got a higher environmental standard
in the new build, but I think if we could West Yorkshire wide ensure that we are going
to a higher standard than the national minimum, that would be one thing.
But also I want to talk about the performance gap because the way that building control
works in this country is to look at the plan and say you've planned to meet a certain standard
and not test that after construction.
If you look at things like the passive power standard, that's a post construction certification
the system so it ensures that that performance is actually achieved.
So I think even if we weren't insisting on a higher standard, if we insisted on a different
certification scheme in West Yorkshire, we would have in effect get a much higher standard
out of the building that we subsidised and I think that particularly speaks to the fuel
poverty point that was being made earlier by Ben as well as our environmental obligations
and does not in any way need to be an impediment to deliver it because if you're just ensuring
that a standard which is already stipulated is actually being achieved, you can't afford
of a higher cost imposed on us through applying that standard. So that was my question really,
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:50:59
can we do that? For future funding that would be up to the
Combined Authority, if there was funds available to establish the parameters of that particular
fund and what that was used for, whether it's for viability issues, as we all understand
the more criteria you put on something the greater the viability, so therefore the more
public sector impacts that will go, or funding will go into it. But then that would be for
the combined authority to agree that for that particular fund. In terms of
monitoring and standards when we give funds it's on a specific basis so we
would expect that to be enough no changes to that either in future so we
can look at that depending on what the form criteria is that's given to us from
either government or within the combined authority.
Thank you. So before we move on I just wanted to kind of, sorry Ben.
Annette Joseph - 0:51:49
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 0:51:53
Hi thank you. I just had a couple of observations too. So I was looking at from 3 .2 to 3 .1 around
the viability models and quite a bit of interest here obviously our business seems involved
in a lot of viability of development nationwide.
And then, this was just an offer really, just to say,
you know, do reach out to other organizations.
We've delivered training, I was down in Oxfordshire
last week, we've been training to 16 planning offices
down there, and I do really support the idea
of the database, and there's things that have been
going on in that sector as well, because
A lot of what we're talking about, whether it's living infrastructure or better quality
homes, the jargon is about land value capture, using the public policy to share that uplifting
land value.
What we're not good at in this country is having a database, so it's not just the appraisal
inputs generally, it's actually having a proper land database.
I know there was work, we did some work that pitched ideas around using artificial intelligence
to help create that data and create these databases.
The planning authorities have a lot of data within their systems, it's all held in PDF
format and so on as well in what cases.
So there are things that can be done, we pitched that to Homes England and the cabinet office
with Ricco. So Ricco do big machine reading type projects and things that you can do these
days so do reach out. I just wanted to pick up on about the housing accelerator fund as
well because I suppose the Brownfield housing fund in the sense of to what extent are some
these funds looking to engage the private sector as well as I suppose just
the RP market as well because the reading the report it does sort of come
across as though there's money being spent delivering schemes and partially
with RPs and I just wondered to what extent going forward to be able to target any capital
funding for private developers as well. He teethes a little bit with the transformational
project from Homes England as well, so what does that mean for instance?
Annette Joseph - 0:54:37
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 0:54:41
So, in terms of the Housing Accelerator Fund, it's a revenue based fund that was initially
targeted at local authorities and led by those housing delivery projects from a local authority
perspective.
In order to try and really target on affordable housing delivery we expanded that to registered
providers as well.
Bearing in mind it's a limited fund and we're already essentially, it's fully committed
Ms. Katie Kavanagh - 0:55:19
at this point in time so there's projects continuously being put to us from local authorities
and the registered providers as well.
So there's limited ability there in terms of private sector
on the Brownfield Housing Fund.
I'll pass it to Tricia.
Sorry.
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 0:55:35
The Brownfield Housing Fund is approximately,
just doing a quick calculation,
I think two thirds is private sector,
most of our engagement is with the private sector.
And it's about because in West Yorkshire
the majority of land is owned by the private,
Brownfield land is owned by the private sector.
So yeah, we've actively engaged with them
with their agents and our name is now being circulated around a bit more so
we're getting a lot more approaches about bringing those store sites into. Is the program full now?
Is the program full? Will there be more calls for projects? So we're in the final months of the
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:56:15
program it ends in March you have to be on site by March 25 so theoretically yes the program is
but we've got large allocations mentioned,
the transformational one that's currently in discussions
with, it's not a Homes England project,
it's working with Homes England,
it's that particular one,
and more discussions with government as well,
regarding whether or not that's a major priority for them.
So that will hinge on a lot of that.
Thank you.
Council Member?
Thanks, just something regarding viability
Annette Joseph - 0:56:44
and needs that we are starting today,
Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council) - 0:56:48
is we've brought some flexibility in with our benchmark transfer price which
means that RPs can make higher offers to developers section 106
homes which obviously helps viability for the developers in
delivering those. We've said it's provided that the percentage of
in our planning policies met.
And it's relatively new, so we'll see how it impacts,
but it's something that we would look at bringing in
on all new developments.
And when we're looking at the developments of scale,
it's something that we hope we'll be able to, yeah,
just address, to go some way to address
some of that viability challenge for developers.
So maybe we'll bring back findings from that.
Thank you.
And one of the things I was thinking about when I was reading through
Annette Joseph - 0:57:50
the documentation was about, we're talking about stock here, but what about the actual events and the people who are who are going to live in these properties?
How can we make sure that the what we build are actually truly affordable?
So some of the shared ownership for instance,
I've got management fees that are ridiculous
and those are service fees that can be escalated
without legislation or without,
so just making sure that we keep an eye
on the management fees, keep an eye on application fees,
keep an eye on when we're talking about private rents,
and how we can make sure that all of that is considered in all of this as well.
Councillor Courtney. Thank you.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:58:46
I was going to say I think Ben with the money that we've had from HAF it's been largely
working then, not exclusively but with private investors, it's not just registered providers,
My question was going to be just really on what Councillor Crook said about when he was
talking about who makes the decision about the decisions that can we say, okay, if we're
funding schemes, can we hold them to can we sort of ask for environmental outputs, for
example, to be of a higher standard than the national average.
And my question is who makes that decision?
So is that a decision that's made by us in this committee?
if we're going to hold, you know, have that as one of the outcomes, or is that a decision
that's made by the Combined Authority main committee, I don't know what it's called,
the Combined Authority committee, the leaders and Tracy, but who makes that decision? And
if it's not ours, can we influence it? Is this regarding Brownfields, capital funding?
So that's...
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:59:52
Yeah, well, yeah.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:59:54
Well, I suppose, I mean, and, and, well, I suppose, I mean, it goes across the board
a little bit.
It's like if actually we want to say, yeah, if we're going to, if we're going to be providing
investment.
I'm trying to use the word investment rather than subsidy on lots of things, because actually
I think that's a better way of framing it.
Um, so if we're going to sort of provide investment into creating housing and we want to see that,
you know, to be, to be held to a slightly higher standard, you know, it's like we're
going to, we want that to make sure that, you know, from a environmentally friendly
point of view or insulator point of view or whatever it is we want to have a sort of can
we make you know if we're investing public money in that can we make sure we have a good
standard who makes that decision about what that outcome is.
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:00:37
With regards to the criteria that was set for Brownfield housing fund we are unable
to do that because it's set and it's to do with additionality and how the funding is
used and we can't put because most projects come to us after the planning stage it's the
criteria that sets a weak hat in Prince Mark. We did look into if we could then find funds
from another project to add into that to ensure that things would then either mark out more.
But that's again where things crossover and one of the great impacts of that was the BCR
and the impact on BCR. Also there's the Affordable Homes Program which is to purchase tenure
so that there's a lot of complexities to it and unfortunately the way the Brownfield Housing
fund is we couldn't do that but we did look into it at the beginning of the
program to see if there was a way that we could either have higher carbon when
a scheme has gone through and it's a preferred scheme and it has fully high
carbon we will do everything we can to make sure that we meet those criteria
and help to ensure that that's preferred scheme goes forward if that gives you
any comfort.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:01:41
So if we're sort of moving in the future to sort of have an integrated
settlement, then is that something that we have maybe a little more control over how
money is spent? Is that something that then we could look at?
Yes, I would hope that would be something that as a combined authority
Ms. Patricia Davey, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:01:54
we have greater
flexibilities of the different funds that we might be able to create and different mechanisms
of delivery models that we could do.
Thank you, Jo. Can I just add to that? I think it's really important
Annette Joseph - 1:02:08
obviously to have the
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 1:02:11
standards, I'd say it's really helpful if there's clarity around how far beyond, if
you like, building regulations one month to go. So for instance, the 2025 part L standard
is quite high and actually will result in quite energy efficient homes. Obviously you
can go further, net zero and so on and so forth, but it's a cost, that's my point, a
balance and do you then say well we want to go all the way to net zero but then maybe
we can't have, we have to compromise on how much then social rent is in the mix or even
how much of the program gets spent on the retrofit that we were talking about earlier
because you know if you're living in a part L 2025 standard house it's going to be pretty
be efficient compared with a leaky old stone terrace.
So, you know, whilst I wouldn't discourage the thinking,
just be cautious about limited resources and how it pans out across the whole piece.
So the last point from Tansin, please.
Thank you.
Mr Tamsin Hart Jones (Private Sector Representative) - 1:03:26
It was just really to confirm on Councillor Crooks point around the tenures and importance
of social rent. We had a letter to our chair from Matthew
Pennycook, the housing minister, which set out seven immediate priorities for the agency
in the new government and one of which was asking us to take steps to ensure that the
agency maximises the number of social rented homes within the remainder of the affordable
homes programme so I just wanted to make that clear in terms of that government
request under the existing programme. Thank you very much. So the recommendation is for
Annette Joseph - 1:04:04
committee members to note the contents of the report and consider options for

9 Strategic Sites and Regeneration

further activity outlined therein. Moving on to item number nine. The purpose of this
report is to provide the committee with an update on the strategic sites and
regeneration focus work that is being progressed by the combined authority through the lens
of the emerging local growth plan. The report is structured to reflect the spatial approach
to the local growth plan which identifies our major urban centres and the corridors
of opportunity connecting them, providing updates on how emerging delivery model thinking
and work associated with specific programmes such as the investment zone programme are
driving progress across the region. I'll hand over to Hannah Andrew for the update.
Hannah Andrew, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:04:57
Thank you chair. Okay I'm going to take the paper as read and just provide a short
introduction. As stated the paper provides an update on strategic sites and
regeneration focus work currently being progressed through either directly or
with support from the CA. We've structured the report around with a
place -based focus rather than by program with links to the emerging local growth
plan drawn out in the text including in relation to the spatial focus in that
plan and priorities for growth. The paper provides an overview of the strategic
sites we are currently actively working on and interfaces across programs
highlighted. So within the local growth plan the SBA's remain with the local
growth plan building on these through identifying how our major urban centres
are connected through main three main corridors and areas of economic strength
Identifying that by investing in our urban centres and the transport corridors that link them, we can maximise the impact of our investment and drive economic growth through dialling in on productivity.
We've got the plan representing that spatial approach from the local growth plan on the screen. We haven't been able to share that previously because it is an emerging policy document and I can say that a draft of the document will be shared with members following this meeting either later on today or tomorrow.
tomorrow. So the corridors are described as following. The western corridor is a major
transformation of the city centres of Leeds and Bradford that can be connected by mass
transit and improved rail connectivity with further rail improvements linking Halifax's
growth potential on on to Greater Manchester. Projects in the corridor include the West
Yorkshire Investment Zone, which is linked to the Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust and Leeds
Presentation Slides - 1:06:42
in Bradford's universities, Bradford City Village,
Leeds Transformational Regeneration Partnership
and the regeneration opportunities
in the Southern Gateway, and housing opportunities
in the Halifax Town Centre
and the North Halifax Growth Zone.
There's a southern corridor that reaches south
from Leeds towards Huddersfield
and then on to Greater Manchester,
drawing in Dewsbury and the garden communities in Coldsdale,
and the major regeneration and economic opportunities
driven by housing growth.
And the projects in this corridor can include the, again, the West Yorkshire Investment
Zone, this time focused around the National Health Innovation Campus in Huddersfield,
Dewsbury Riverside and the residential opportunities in Dewsbury Town Centre, garden communities
at Thornhill's and Woodhouse, in Colderdale and Bradley and Kirklees, Clifton Business
Park, and investment in the South Bank area of Leeds.
And then there's the Easton Corridor, which leads in Wakefield, already, there are already
good train connections here which can be strengthened to link the wider corridor
and on into South Yorkshire supporting development in Wakefield Centre and in
the surrounding areas and projects around this corridor include regeneration
and renewal in Wakefield City Centre and the Castleford Growth Zone, Langthwaite
Enterprise Zone and the CA's
development of an extension to the Langthwaite Business Park here and key
employment opportunities around Ferrybridge, Skelton Grange and the Air Valley.
I'm going to leave it there and open the floor to questions and I do have some colleagues around
the table to help me with that because there's a lot in the paper in terms of projects and a lot
of people working on those. Any questions, comments?
Annette Joseph - 1:08:22
Yeah thanks. I guess a question more around changes with the MPPF coming in and probably
Cllr Ben Burton (York Council) - 1:08:31
having three, sorry you knew this one was going to come up didn't you, probably about three of the authorities
out of five having to go back into a local plan process based on the numbers
forecasted. How does that match with here? Do you see it as an opportunity for
additional growth and then just a way to build on what's already here or do you
think it's a bit of a having to manage that process as it goes forward I guess?
Annette Joseph - 1:09:05
Yeah, I think, I think obviously housing growth is very much on the
Hannah Andrew, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:09:06
agenda and is very much
seen as an opportunity for economic growth.
So yeah, absolutely, I think that's something that we do need to work through at the moment.
Those changes in the MPP haven't actually been formalized, so we're not expecting that.
I don't believe now this side of Christmas, but at the point that they come through we'll
be working with partner authorities to understand the implications of that and we are already
obviously having those conversations but it's very early stages for me to be committing
to exactly how that will pan out and where that growth would go.
Thank you.
Ben?
Just to sort of say that it looks really great, sort of diagrammatic
Annette Joseph - 1:09:53
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 1:09:55
approach and support
it fully and it would be great to get it rolled out. I suppose what I was going through in
my mind is this kind of formal basis of future SDS under the new MPPF. Presumably you are
talking to come about the SDS opportunity and also I just wondered whether there is
any scope within any of these projects that we've got to engage in the new towns programme
as well that the government are bringing forward.
Hannah Andrew, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:10:33
Thank you for that. Yes, again I would say from the point of the SDS, it is a live conversation
but it is very early stages, we've got no regulatory back up on that in terms of understanding
exactly what that would mean for the region but certainly in terms of new
towns yes sorry yeah that was I think I think for the region we see the
opportunities really very much as aligned in the local growth plan is
being around our existing urban centers and the regeneration and densification
opportunities there rather than specific new towns at this stage but but this
sort of trying to get that as an approach. I think I'm aware of other
Ben Aspinall (Private Sector Representative) - 1:11:19
areas where sort of
even kind of brownfield what you might call urban centres existing centres they're still pitching
in they're not they're not they're not thinking of it is it has to be sort of a green greenfield
you know pilot in a new a new town so yeah I think there might be an opportunity opportunity there.
Annette Joseph - 1:11:46
Cllr Jessica Lennox - 1:11:48
So as long as it's contiguous sites it can be an expansion of an existing urban centre
so it's called New Towns as a headline but we'll look at for instance Southern Gateway
in Bradford could that work around the new station to create that density for government
so I think that's spot on on our approach unless I've mangled it there but now I think
that's right.
Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:12:06
Yeah, no I was going to say exactly the same thing. So we are quite clear about what the
growth potential is within our region and so we are trying to respond to the opportunity
around Newtown in that context. So as Councillor Oshawa has said, there are significant at -scale
opportunities within our existing urban areas and urban centres, so that's the conversation
that we're having with government.
Councillor Courtney. Yeah we really welcome your continued support of Clifton Enterprise
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:12:34
Zone which you know hopefully we'll get there eventually. Just noticing on the map that
I'm not quite sure if the Elland station dot is actually on there, it won't be there yet
because obviously we don't have the station yet but that is still you know obviously we're
just making sure that that hasn't been left off that we're still that that's still sort
the pipeline for itself because actually with the you know as you've mentioned we've got
our new garden communities that coming up there and actually having having you know
more rail services in the area is something you know wanting to sort of encourage people
to be using rail and with my transport hat on we're you know already having because even
though those aren't going to be there for a few years starting to look at whether we
can increase the number of trains that come through that line because actually
having one train an hour that services Brick House and you know then Elland is
not any use you know and also connecting us up with Huddersfield for example or
connecting up through sort of like round through Leeds in that way actually
having a greater so and I know that obviously this isn't the
Transport Committee but actually I think having that push across you know that
joined up approach and that push across is also useful to work towards you know
working towards the same goals and having that connectivity for employment
for business for people for leisure
Annette Joseph - 1:14:07
Stephen hi yeah just I think probably just two things one is an overlay for
this in terms of mentioned connectivity, digital as well, and the future sort of expansion
plans across those routes and those areas, and not just fixed line but mobile as well,
because a lot of the, certainly the routes and mass transit is a particular example,
you know, having a broad infrastructure for not just gig but beyond, you know, now that
the industry's moving on, but also making sure that all of the local authorities are
releasing their assets in a cohesive approach, so you don't just get a route that has great
mobile, but then you go to the next authority and they don't allow fixed assets onto council
assets.
So that was one part.
And then the other one was probably just also the same with power, by the way, and some
of those strategic sites to see what power infrastructure is also available and being
upgraded.
And then the other one was just in terms of skills, because I know we picked it out in
this report and we talked about it, but it still does concern me that the CITB indicating
lots of challenges with skills broader.
And even putting pins in there and saying where are those training facilities, who is
providing the skills that we need to deliver some of these projects. So I just sort of
put that in as a highlight and ask as well to be an overlay on the map.
Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board) - 1:15:46
Cathy. Thank you, Chair. Something we discussed in the private session this summer was looking
at the NHS capital priorities and infrastructure plan and we had a follow up meeting between
and announcements, part of that with combined authority colleagues and NHS colleagues on
looking at how we can see where we've got things in common and also have an overlay
of the NHS plans on that map as well. So it's work in progress and there was a reference
there to Leeds Teaching Hospital. They are still awaiting a decision on national funding
for the redevelopment of their children's and adults hospital up for Airedale Hospital
covering Bradford District and Craven. They've had their capital funding
confirmed in principle because of the rack issue that they have. Both of those
hospitals being major developments and we have fingers crossed for these
teachers to get their national government funding. I'd really welcome
that cross -referencing on transport and I know you said it's not a transport
committee as well but it all connects obviously. So those are I suppose two
developments. We do have a mental health hospital investment in Bradford as well
less so about transport links but that's also a major piece of investment coming
into the region. So I just suppose I wanted to put it on to this meeting to
say that we've agreed to do that mapping exercise on spatial priorities of
general infrastructure particularly for us in looking at the priority investment
needs for general practice for GP surgeries and clinics to take forward as
well so we've just had an analysis of that. So, but I'll follow up with Alison and Jennifer for coming afterwards as well. Thank you.
Annette Joseph - 1:17:28
Thank you Cathy. Lisa? Thank you chair. Just a little reflection, it's really pleasing to see the coherence of what's important and where she ought to be and what's been driven forward.
so really supportive of that. And actually I was just pondering on whether this is going
to be used in a more promotional kind of sense because actually sometimes I think we observe
that there isn't a lot of... let me word this properly. We see a lot of activity in other
places, other cities, other regions promoting what's going on. And for me, I haven't always
got the coherent sort of sense of what's happening in West Yorkshire to be able to own that.
And I think we're all part of that effort to put forward that message about West Yorkshire
is brilliant. There's all this great stuff going on. Come and invest or come and basically,
you know. And I was just wondering if there's any sort of thoughts of how this will be used
is a tool towards that sort of seeking investment and promoting last Yorkshire.
We might have to take that back Lisa. It's partly because we structured our paper to
Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:18:56
update you around the work on strategic sides around the growth plan content, but the growth
plan content and how it's being driven and used is being led by others. But I would like
to think so that part of the reason for having a coherent growth plan and for
spending the time trying to articulate some of that spatially is so that we can
better communicate those messages so the answer is yes but how we're going to do
that and what the plan is to do that I'll have to come back to you on.
Annette Joseph - 1:19:27
Councillor Colle. This is a teeny tiny one and it's not meant to sound facetious but
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:19:31
but the large dotted line that's going from Leeds, Pudsey, Bruckford and then it goes
like Hebden Bridge and then it drops down past the motorway or whatever the blue line
is. I'm just wondering why it's going down to Manchester that way and not going through
the train line through the Calder Valley line goes through Todmorden and then down to Manchester.
I'm just wondering why that dotted line sort of drops down sort of short of that
sort of western bit of Calderdale which is sort of Hepton Bridge, Tomlton, that
sort of area. I'm just wondering why because I'm not, I'm not, you know, I mean I
know it's just a line drawn on a map and I know that it's not, probably doesn't
actually have any significance but actually if you live in, that is actually
taking out a very large, quite a large part of Calderdale and it's sort of an
important economically, quite important part of Calderdale so I'm just,
I'm sure it wasn't done deliberately, but I would just say that optically that's making
me twitch slightly.
Thank you, no I think that's useful feedback.
Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:20:33
We will take it back.
I'm assuming it tracks to Manchester Centre, but I don't know, so I'll ask our GIS colleagues
and we'll see if we can adjust it.
Thank you.
Any more questions comments
Annette Joseph - 1:20:54
So the recommendation is the committee is asked to note progress with strategic sites alongside the special approach
Outlined which reflects thinking in the emerging local growth plan

10 Local Remediation Acceleration Plans

So moving on to item number 10 local remediation acceleration plans
The purpose of this report is to provide information on progress towards a local remediation acceleration
plan, following the publication of the final Grenfell Tower inquiry report.
I'll hand over to Katie Cavanaugh for the update.
Thank you, Chair.
So this paper is intended to make the committee aware of the work the Combined Authority is
Ms. Katie Kavanagh - 1:21:43
being asked to do in relation to these local remediation acceleration plans.
to support the work of local government, local authorities, the fire and rescue service and other regulators in addressing buildings affected by unsafe cladding to make them safe.
The Deputy Prime Minister wrote to all combined authorities in September and a copy of the letter is appended to the report which provides the context of what is being asked of us.
This is not an area that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority has had a role in previously and we are currently doing what we can with the resources that we have.
We are still getting into some of the detail and getting to grips with the particular barriers
that are contributing to some buildings taking longer than they should to be addressed, although
some of the key barriers are outlined in the report.
What is clear is that the regulators have defined responsibilities and we need to establish
in partnership with those regulators what the role of the combined authority could and
should be given the right resources.
It is likely that we will be playing a convening role, bringing together multiple stakeholders
We are working up a draft of the plan at the moment which is expected to be shared with
MHCLG at the end of the month and we are meeting regularly with partners and MHCLG as this
progresses.
We would welcome any feedback or suggestions particularly in regard to any key issues that
should be highlighted in the plan.
Thank you.
Thank you Katie.
Comments, questions?
Annette Joseph - 1:23:12
Yeah, it's just a question and I just appended to the bottom of that,
Andy Wallhead, Advisory Representative (WY Housing Partnership) - 1:23:15
it's a letter that
was sent to Tracy on the 13th of September and it does say in there, it asks questions
somewhere in there about, I'd like to hear thoughts on what major steps you could take
to increasing the pace of remediation and also what barriers and it asks for a response
to be sent by the 27th of September. So I'm just wondering has a response been sent and
what was kind of said in that response.
We weren't given a huge amount of time to reply to that so we had some initial meetings with the
Ms. Katie Kavanagh - 1:23:47
local authorities to gather their thoughts given that they've been a lot closer to this issue
than us and off the back of that we outlined some of those barriers and some of the things
that we could do initially. Most of that was around convening meetings and the barriers
that were then listed in the report to the committee as well. So that's kind of it as
a first stab but there have been subsequent meetings since then to sort of share that
information.
Annette Joseph - 1:24:25
Thank you. Questions? No questions? Okay. So the recommendation then is for the committee
is asked to consider the feedback from the local authority partners and provide any feedback
Annette Joseph - 1:24:35
on the barriers to progression or suggestions around any key issues to
highlight in the preparation of the plan. Moving on to item number 11 climate

11 Climate and Environment Plan

climate and environmental environment plan plan the purpose of this report is
to provide an overview of the areas of the emerging draft West Yorkshire
climate and environment plan with particular reference to areas that are
Relevant for this committee and gain feedback from members on the draft framework and action areas for the plan
I'll hand over to Noel Collins for the update. Perfect
Thank you very much chair
everybody and
So I'll take the paper as read
But just kind of reiterate some kind of key points related the report
As you've seen, you're all probably very much aware of the target that we have in West Yorkshire in terms of the net zero by 2038 target.
So we have that target kind of and the declaration of climate emergency underpinning a lot of what we do.
We've made good progress, as you'll see from the first appendix, related to activity around that target over the last four years or so, the last May or early period.
and that was encompassed in our last kind of plan.
There's a huge range of activity there from transport related activity through to things like the natural recovery side of things.
What I've failed to note for you to notice that the existing plan runs out at the end of this year,
so there is an immediate need to look at the next plan and what that looks like for the next period.
So we are now very much as you see from the paper looking at
what comes next and the shaping and the framing of the next plan.
The idea as you've seen through the paper is that is a long -term plan out of
2038. The framework that you see in the paper is that which kind of structures
what we will be hanging our climate related activity on over the period up to 2038.
So we hope that that kind of fits requirements for the long term.
But the other aspect of it is very much around what we do within the next kind of four years,
very much aligned to May oral term.
So as you've seen, there's a reframework there.
I won't go through that, but that's very much linking to what we already have in place
in terms of the West Yorkshire Plan and our previous kind of ambitions around the climate agenda.
very much kind of tries to look at five specific areas in which we have
influence and control as local authorities and combined authorities.
Very keen as part of this item to kind of get your feedback on those
kind of that framework itself but also kind of the activity areas that are
documented with Appendix 2. So Chair, I will hand back to you. Thank you.
Annette Joseph - 1:27:36
Thank you very much. Does anybody have any comments or questions?
Yes, Councillor Courtney.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:27:52
Thank you. Yeah, so, um, um, so you've asked for feedback.
So it's great there's clear ambition for specific mass transit projects and
insulation of all social housing by 2038. But the plan is a bit more vague on
setting goals for progress in areas that local authorities or partners might lead
for example decarbonizing the public estate and for all. So I
I mean, I think we'd be keen for this to take a whole building approach.
And could we set a similar ambition to that stated for social housing, for example?
So, for example, you know, could the plan be to commit support and help to enable all public estate to be net zero by 2038, for example?
In terms of the new duties for nature restoration, that's brought a strong focus onto agriculture
and farm engagement.
How can this be delivered in partnership is a key question, I think, to maximize partner
strength.
So the roles for partners throughout the plan, including business partners, could perhaps
be more clearly articulated, so there's just a bit of a strong focus on that.
In terms of adaptation and resilience, they also feature with the combined authority intending
to progress risk assessment and a regional plan.
So could the combined authority have set out a need for further work on net zero finance
and wish to scope combined authority's role as a potential investor?
business models and governance is a critical issue for many net zero projects and collaborative
shared work on this as an area would be very valuable and I know there's just been an announcement
hasn't there around pension fund consolidation I don't know if that will end up playing into
this at all I don't know if that's I don't know that's I mean that was just on the news
this morning I heard about you know whether that will end up being a sort of potential
source of finance for these sorts of projects. So combined authority, you're articulating
some policy, ask for central government, for example, government to equalise levies in
gas and electricity bills, and I think we'd be keen to see each strand of action to actually
have a specific ask, so maybe a little bit more detail.
I think I'd also advocate that the CEP should quantify
the scale of the carbon and nature challenge
to help focus attention on areas or projects
which can deliver the most benefits.
I think Alex was talking earlier about,
you go for the highest gain first,
but yeah, so I think focusing attention on areas
that can deliver the most benefit,
for example in carbon terms the biggest challenges are finding ways to progress
heat decarbonization and reduce single occupancy internal combustion engine
vehicle numbers. Community engagement is an unclear theme and this will need to
be resourced to enable bottom -up and community led shifts on the ground and I
think this is particularly important at the moment where we're seeing a lot of
of negative feedback from people who shouldn't really be,
I think shouldn't be complaining about people
being given more choice than actually public investment
into sort of alternatives, but I think there is quite a lot
of that sort of stuff on the ground.
We're certainly seeing that in Colthadel.
I'm sure people are seeing that in other authorities
as well, so I think that community engagement
I think would be really welcome for us to have support
around community engagement, and I'm sure that colleagues
would agree with that. Two more points only in terms of biocrops it might be
good to see if this has this come from the farming community because I know
that biocrops can be a bit of an emotive areas for farmers and green campaigners
so like how much have farmers sort of actually
and now the business is on board. And finally, in terms of planning, so in Colesdale the
planning rate increasing new housing build standards can be difficult to do. More support
without sort of area. That's my list. You did ask for feedback.
Annette Joseph - 1:32:40
Bill, do you want to feedback on any of that? Thank you chair, so much to go out there,
but first of all thank you very much for the kind of the feedback there I think.
We are at that stage of developing the plan which means that we can take all of
these things on board so really welcome kind of that input. Just to pick out a
few things there in terms of points you've kind of raised there. Just to
reassure on the public estate side of things that's very firmly within this
the remit of this and obviously limited space within the report to kind of
mention everything but it absolutely is within our thinking because we do
absolutely recognize the fact that that is one of the areas in which we have
much more control as a kind of local authorities and combined authorities so
and it'd be silly not for us to kind of look at that side of things.
In terms of the finance side of things, if we can just kind of pick on that one as well,
I think we're not wedded to any kind of model or anything around that financing piece at this moment of time.
We are very much looking at the makeup of that, what could it look like, where would the funding come from,
so it's still very early stages about what that would look like,
but the ambition is there to have something which does support projects to move forward
through that project development and implementation and obviously help us get to where we absolutely
need to.
And then just in terms of, you talked about the biocrops element, I understand from colleagues
they've done quite a lot of engagement, partly through the local nature recovery strategy
kind of activity, but also individual engagement to get to this point in the climate environment
plan that has informed what you've seen there. So there will be kind of feedback there that
is taking that on board a little bit. But again, just to say thank you so much for your
input.
Annette Joseph - 1:34:38
Excellent, thank you. Stephen?
Thank you, Chair. I think just an observation in terms of the solar, do we cover off discussions
in terms of the priority areas and areas where we might be developing and areas where we
might be putting solar in.
Do we have network discussions with the DNOs,
so that the power companies to understand
that if we put solar on that,
they could actually take the power that's generated?
The reason I ask is, so just somebody mentioned,
this is anecdotal, it's not, you know,
I'm not saying that it's everywhere,
but somebody had said that company tried to install solar,
they got consultants in to do the work,
you know, to evaluate them.
And then they went to the power company and said,
well, we can't take that.
and that was just a sort of red flag to say is it that layer needs to be on it
because our ambition needs to align with other ambitions so it was just a point of note.
Annette Joseph - 1:35:40
Thank you chair. Absolutely so, Northern Power Grid as the kind of the
distributed energy operator within the kind of who operates the wires and
things like that within within West Yorkshire is absolutely engaged within
in the process that we're doing.
So they're very much aware of that strategic
kind of conversation.
There is obviously an issue which I think
we may be all aware of in terms of the queue of projects
that are out there to connect to the grid.
There are moves afoot and I think there's been
announcements kind of this week or last week
around making that queue system a lot quicker.
So we are very much aware of kind of pushing
to do that at a kind of national level as well.
The other thing to kind of note,
which might help with those conversations,
is around our local area energy planning work
that we're actually doing,
which will look at West Yorkshire
through kind of that spatial energy lens.
So looking at where is the most appropriate places
to locate various different technologies,
working out how the grid can cope with that,
and trying to understand those issues
where there might be capacity constraints
for us or the farm for example in a particular location and how upgrades
need to happen. So we're trying to develop that understanding and evidence
of actually where this will work better, where we might have blockages
and those types of things so we're better prepared for conversations that
might happen in the future. Thank you and can I just say that that that is a
really good story in itself. You know we were talking about how we set
ourselves up for you know for success and how we talk about the stuff we're
I think it feels like that probably needs something that could be shared with businesses,
shared wider certainly. Thank you.
Thank you. Cathy?
Annette Joseph - 1:37:37
I wanted to profile the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnerships at
Cathy Elliot, Advisory Representative (NHS West Yorkhire Integrated Care Board) - 1:37:39
Climate Change Strategy as well,
which is led by my colleague Frank Swinton,
and it's particularly to align decarbonizing
the public estate.
So Noel, I don't know if you're working with Frank
at the moment, but I would really recommend that
so that we can complement each other.
And also the point on clean and green transport as well.
We know the NHS is contributing negatively and positively
to this issue and agenda.
So I think a conversation with Frank I'd encourage
to then align those two strategies and also how the NHS as a major employer and
manager of estates can contribute to the plan as well. I can introduce you if you
don't have the details. Thank you very much Cathy. Any more comments?
Councillor Conley? Yeah, actually just what you said there about the
Annette Joseph - 1:38:32
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:38:34
NHS and about clean transport, it's actually just made me think of I went to a
session earlier in the year that was talking about sort of air, so not really I suppose
from a climate action point of view in terms of sort of you know the decarbonisation from
that sort of perspective, but actually just the fact that air pollution is such a major
cause of poor child health for example and also adult health but really for child health
and that sort of focusing, having that focus on the health benefits.
I think someone earlier on mentioned, it's been mentioned earlier on,
that there's multiple benefits for different things
and actually we need to map out some of those cost benefits as well.
I think it's really notoriously difficult to monetize the benefits of good child health
but actually, you know, we can but but those things are really important I think as well to sort of
And I think can help in terms of investment, you know, if we're looking for investment or looking for buy -in actually, you know
if people are feeling grumpy about about, you know, the fact that their local authority is
Pushing a active transport, you know, for example agenda and I may have a few battle scars
I speak for experience on here about this, but actually, you know, if we're reframing
it in terms of, well, you know, okay, so we're offering choice and we want to invest in public
transport because we're offering choice, it gives people more choice, but also it means
that air quality is better and that's better for our children and it means that people
can get to work better, which is better for our businesses, and it means that we can reduce
inequalities because not everyone can afford to run a car and it means that, you know,
it's better for wildlife and there's all of these different things that are so important
and so interlinked that actually I think that the point is just about making sure that some
of those outcomes maybe are captured as well I think for the benefit of everyone.
That's a really good point and I guess to say that as part of the evidence based work
that underpins the climate environment plan we have a section of that that looks at the
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:41:03
co -benefits of all climate activity so just to reassure that's very firmly within that
and what we will try and do is move that theme through as we move into more detailed development
activity. Yeah and also Vision Zero as well because obviously that's a you know
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:41:19
that's a really important priority of the mayor and the deputy mayor as well
isn't it that the Vision Zero is sort of getting rid of serious accidents or you
know deaths and you know through road traffic sort of stuffs and that's
another getting people into public transport is another benefit. That's another benefit.
That's fine. That's really interesting. I think the garden communities that we talked about
Annette Joseph - 1:41:41
And the last point would be a really great data set,
a data place for us to log all of that data
and kind of record that as a long -term study.
Ben?
Councilor Burton?
Thanks.
Cllr Ben Burton (York Council) - 1:42:00
Probably not one to answer now, but more of a kind of an ask
is that this will take you within 10 years of the target
for 2038 for net zero.
So it's how bold are you going to be with kind of ambitions
for what things you're going to achieve by the end of this,
or what we're not going to be doing during that period.
So really, if you fit a bowl or boiler in 2028,
you're not going to be replacing it by 2038.
So really, you need to be saying no boilers.
Things like new roads, even things like petrol station
infrastructure really is irrelevant by 2038
on this target.
So it's how bold are those ambitions going
to be in terms of what we're asking people to do
by the end of this period?
Because it's not very long left after that, I guess,
to actually the 2038 bit, which is always a difficult question to ask because we're not
sure how they make 2038 but there does need to be quite big midterm targets to actually get to that point.
You're absolutely right, yeah. There is work ongoing at the moment to kind of understand how bold and how brave we can actually be within the next four years.
and you know we will try and push the envelope as much as we're able to within constraints that we
have but I think the whole engagement process that we're going to be going through as part of
kind of the next stage of development of the work be really crucial to kind of understand how far
we can push that dial particularly in terms of how partners can kind of come with us on that
journey and support us in our ambitions to do what needs to be done to get towards our 2038 target.
In the end, it's not just combined authorities or local authorities that need to kind of work together to get to that target
It's the collective West Yorkshire and beyond that that really gets us to where we need to be. So we very much
Kind of a work in progress to see how far we can push on some of those things over the next few months or so
Thank you
Annette Joseph - 1:43:56
Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council - 1:43:57
Just to follow on from that really, I think it's relevant and the papers within the
committee here are all kind of interconnected aren't they, so sorry to be on the same theme
all the time. But the Home Energy West Yorkshire retrofit program for example
is another way where we might be able to set standards in terms of the
environmental performance of our buildings and particularly with reference to our
$180 ,000 social rented houses. Again another thing that I seem to be repeating
but I think you know the EPCC rating standard that we're aiming for at the moment is not
going to deliver our 2038 target at all so is this another area where we might be able
to through this committee or through the West Yorkshire Common Authority impose a higher
standard of retrofit and also following on from that 3 .30 it explicitly mentions you
know building new homes acknowledging that if we build new homes now that we'll need
retrofitting almost as soon as they're built, if we're going to meet zero carbon targets
by 2038 is not a sensible way to proceed.
So we do actually need to try and find a way to impose higher standards, not just in retrofit,
but also on new build.
Again, higher standards in terms of the design, but also higher standards in terms of the
way that we verify that design has been delivered, so in terms of post -construction certification.
Thank you.
Annette Joseph - 1:45:13
Thank you.
Stephen?
Just one observation actually on that because I think there is a point of, you know, don't
get perfect, get in the way of good, I think there is a point of some of the technology
that can be used as well as retrofit. I think it was here where somebody said it was 30 ,000
Stephen Moore - 1:45:34
to 25 ,000 to 30 ,000 to retrofit an old house to get it where it needs to be, but something
like a hive or a Tardo that can reduce consumption in their house by 25 % and cost less than a
thousand, seems like it should be something that we consider as well, so something that
helps from a technology point of view.
And using, like perhaps we've done with the Sola, a bulk buying scheme to say we can bulk
buy however many thousands of Tardos you can get them 25 % off seems like quite a quick
win for a combined authority.
Quite a coup, I would have thought.
So yeah, just throwing it out there,
just open it up to technology and other things.
Let's take 10%.
It might not be 50, but let's take 10.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Annette Joseph - 1:46:27
Just to say that point around trying to go for perfect,
it's kind of not making us not get in the way of kind of just making those moves and
those changes. I think on that particular point around homes and retrofit, I think it
will be that suite of measures that will ultimately get us there. We know already that we have
various levels of acceptance of people coming into people's homes and doing different works
and those types of things. So we know from that that we will have to have a differing
of approaches in terms of technologies, how far we push the envelope, costs, you
know we do have a lot of heritage kind of buildings, they provide different kind
of complications in terms of retrofit and you know we do know we've got some
work to do in terms of how we we balance out things around prices of gas and
electricity that might help with some of that. So it's all part of a bigger
envelope in terms of the types of solution and options that we have
available to us and I don't think anything is really off the table in terms of
How we push that through and move forward on that agenda
Thank you
Annette Joseph - 1:47:48
So the recommendation then is committees asked to note the contents of the report and
Provide feedback on the draft framework and action areas for the refreshed West Yorkshire climate and environment plan
So, before we go to the date of the next meeting, I'd like to say a big thank you to Andy Walhead.
It's his last Place Housing and Regeneration meeting today.

For Information

He's just stepping down as chair of the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership.
So, thank you for your service, Andy.

12 Date of the Next Meeting

And the date of the next meeting is going to be the 6th of March, 2025.
With that, that's the end of the formal meeting.
Thank you.