Attendees:
Melanie Sealey (Chair), Keir Duffin, Alison Hayward, Chris Bartlett, Claire Cushion, David Carter, Dominie Dunbrook, Helen Cox, Joe Wharton, Kevin Mills, Mathew Chetwynd, Mike Deaton, Patrick Rafferty, Paul Britton, Richard Marsh, Roger Clotworthy, Sarah Jane Mackenzie-Shapland, Sean Kearney, Sue Windley, Hannah Keyte (Minutes)
Apologies:
Adrian Welsh, Alan Denby, Andrew Collier, Catherine Turner, Chris Shears, Chris Watts, Dave Harwood, David Lang, Iain Masters, Ian Collinson, Jody James, Laura Jayne Haynes, Leroy Venn, Neil Blaney, Rosa Payne, Tim Child
1. Community Land Trust Workshop (21st February) – Sue Rose
Devon Housing Task Force commissioned (with support of LGA) a study into Community Land Trusts.
Workshop scheduled on 21st February to review recommendations and explore how to take this forward.
Please feel free to extend the workshop invite to others not on this call.
2. NHS Update – Mathew Chetwynd
Estates Infrastructure Strategy going through internal governance sign off. The strategy sets out high level ambitions and timescales with delivery plans to be developed.
Suggestion to bring PCN Strategy to a future meeting which is a key strand of the overarching strategy.
Agreed to have a confidential discussion at the next OPE Board Meeting on co-location opportunities.
3. Benchmarking with Dorset Council – Keir Duffin
Dorset have agreed to benchmark with Devon and Torbay OPE. Have developed a set of benchmarks, linking back to OPE aspirations and drawing on each other’s best practice.
Keir Duffin will bring an initial summary of what we have achieved, comparing and contrasting with Dorset to the next OPE Board Meeting.
Dorset will be attending the CLT Workshop on 21st February and will make any workshops they are running available to Devon and Torbay OPE.
4. OPE Round 10 Partnership Board – BLRF Round 2 Phase 3 Bid – Keir Duffin
OPE Round 10 EOI was successful and full bid required to be submitted by 29th January.
3 areas being included: estate transformation rationalisation, community regeneration across coastal and rural areas and employment and skills hubs.
Keir Duffin seeking approval to submit the bid by the deadline. No objections, points of clarity or questions were raised by the Board.
BLRF Round 2 Phase 3 – developing bids with district colleagues. Currently have 6 public sector district council’s bidding with 20 developments, of which 90% will be affordable rent model.
Bids required to be submitted mid-February.
Paul Britton highlighted requirement to focus on the successes from BLRF, celebrating the wins and raising awareness. Paul Britton offered support, working with partners to achieve this.
Devon and Torbay OPE partnership formally asked that the three-year BLRF programme model be considered by central government as a key success and should be replicated in any future programmes.
5. Any Other Business
Joe Wharton – Regional Assistant Director in Markets, Partners and Places at Homes England. In recruitment process for SW Team and will ensure attendance at these meetings going forward.
Homes England are not only able to fund projects but can support capacity and capability around moving projects from early stages (where perhaps they are not eligible for BLRF and other funding streams), supporting to navigate these into deliverable and eligible projects.
ACTION: Keir Duffin and Joe Wharton to have an offline conversation around join up and bidding process for funding.
David Carter advised development pipelines in place so would welcome conversations with Homes England to review this and discuss any applicable funding / support available.
Future Meeting Dates
Wednesday 17th April 2024 – 10am
Wednesday 24th July 2024 – 2pm
Wednesday 23rd October 2024 – 2pm