Issue - meetings

Recommendation 2a was chaired by Diana Minns (Vice Chair / Tenant Representative) and recommendations 2b was chaired by Councillor Todd-Jones.

Matter for Decision

The report presented a summary of the 2015/16 outturn position (actual income and expenditure) for services within the Housing Revenue Account, compared to the current budget for the year.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Housing

a) Approved carry forward requests totalling £1,987,000 in revenue funding from 2015/16 to 2016/17, as detailed in Appendix C of the Officer’s report.

b) Approved that carry forward requests of £2,171,000 in HRA and General Fund Housing capital resources from 2015/16 to 2016/17 to fund rephased net capital spending, as detailed in Appendix D and the associated notes to the appendix of the Officer’s report is recommended to Council.

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

Scrutiny Considerations

The Business Manager/Principal Accountant (Shared Housing Finance Team) said the following in response to Members’ questions:

     i.        Underspends were based on fixed targets and evidence of where savings had been realised.

    ii.        There were high demands on the fencing budgets and the carry forward reflects funds that had been committed but not yet delivered.

   iii.        Members were assured that the disabled adaptations services had sufficient staff to deliver the service. The fluctuating spends were a characteristic of the services where high cost adaptations could not be predicted.

  iv.        The Strategic Advisor - Housing and Welfare Reform explained that a clearer policy and criteria was under development. She stated that the intention was to make the criteria used to assess claims clearer to service users. There could be occasions when it was unrealistic to adapt a property and moving might be suggested as a better option.    

The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendations.

The Executive Councillor for Housing approved the recommendation.