Leader of the Council and Place Shaping Cabinet Member – Minutes – 16 August 2017

3 (3) HOUSING INVESTMENT – The Director: Business Development submitted a report updating the Cabinet Member on the success of the Housing Capacity Fund Application and seeking approval for the creation of a two year fixed term post to support the development of the North Lincolnshire Housing Market.

North Lincolnshire had expressed a commitment to creating a place to live, work and invest.  The development of the housing market was a key driver to create and sustain economic growth.  Government had committed more than £20 billion of gross capital investment over this Parliament to support housing and local growth. This included the doubling of the housing budget to deliver 400,000 new homes.

Through the Homes and Communities Agency the Council had been successful in acquiring £112k to support our ambitious housing plans.

Resolved – (a) That the Cabinet Member note the success of the Housing Capacity Fund Application, and (b) that the creation of a two year fixed term post of Housing Investment Officer to support the development of the North Lincolnshire Housing Market be supported.

4 (4)  GAUGE ENHANCEMENT – The Director: Business and Transformation submitted a report updating the Cabinet Member on the Gauge Enhancement project in North Lincolnshire and seeking approval to accept the £7.2m allocation from the Local Growth Fund to part-fund the project.

By around 2020 more than 50% of containers destined for UK ports would arrive on ‘high cube’ containers. It was not currently possible to transport them to and from the South Humber ports, where local rail infrastructure only support standard containers. High cube containers were 9’6” in height and therefore limitations currently involved height and width restrictions to bridge platforms and other structures. Gauge enhancements were needed on the route between Killingholme, Immingham and Doncaster.

An application was submitted to the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to secure funding to enable progress of these works. Following appraisal of this bid, Humber LEP had allocated £7.2m towards this scheme. Network Rail had allocated £7.488m and the council had allocated £800,000. The total project investment was £15.488m.

It was intended that the Local Growth Fund would be used to complete the enhancements to allow the high cube containers throughout the rail network. The works included bridge reconstruction, track lowering through bridges, copper realignment, platform edges and signal relocation.

Resolved – (a) That the Cabinet Member note the information contained in this report and (b) acceptance of £7.2m of Local Growth Fund monies to enable the project to go forward be approved.

Note: Reports are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore require a suitable reader to view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).