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Minutes:
Item chaired by Diana Minns, Vice Chair / Tenant
Representative.
Recommendation 2a (decision i) was chaired by
Diana Minns (Vice Chair / Tenant Representative) and recommendations 2b
(decision ii) was chaired by Councillor Todd-Jones.
Matter for
Decision
The report presented, for the Housing Revenue Account:
i.
A summary of actual income and expenditure compared
to the final budget for 2019/20 (outturn position)
ii.
Revenue and capital budget variances with
explanations
iii.
Specific requests to carry forward funding
available from both revenue and capital budget underspends into 2020/21.
iv.
A summary of housing debt which was written off
during 2019/20.
Decision
of Executive Councillor for Housing
Under Part 1 of
the Housing Scrutiny Committee Agenda, the Executive Councillor Housing
Scrutiny Committee:
i.
Approved carry forward requests totalling
£1,431,300 in revenue funding from 2019/20 into 2020/21, as detailed in
Appendix C of the Officer’s report.
ii.
Approved a delegation to the Head of Finance to
make the
necessary
changes to the 2020/21 base budgets to remove the impact of inflation in all
non-pay and non-contractual revenue budgets.
iii.
Approved carry forward requests of £6,560,000 in
HRA and General Fund Housing capital budgets and associated resources from
2019/20 into 2020/21 and beyond to fund re-phased net capital spending, as
detailed in Appendix D of the Officer’s report and the associated notes to the
appendix.
Reason for the Decision
As set out in the Officer’s report.
Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected
Not applicable.
Scrutiny
Considerations
The Committee received a report from the Assistant Head of Finance and Business
Manager.
The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:
i.
Expressed disappointment at the failure to deliver
the Decent Homes Standards to all tenants and the associated underspend.
ii.
Sought clarity on the council tax liable on void
properties.
iii.
Suggested that some underspends could be diverted
into energy efficiency measures.
iv.
Welcomed the progress made with disabled
adaptation.
The Assistant Head of
Finance and Business Manager said the following in response to Members’
questions:
i.
Explained that tenants had the right to refuse
improvement work such as kitchen or bathroom refits. Some had taken good care
of existing facilities and did not want the disruption of replacement work.
ii.
Confirmed that the authority is liable for the
majority of the Council Tax on void properties, with homes vacated for
redevelopment causing the majority of spend. Confirmed that only short-term
discounts or exemptions are available (one month in most cases).
iii.
Confirmed that there had been no change in policy
of discretionary repairs. However, there had been a change in procedures with
council staff no longer undertaking works which were the tenant’s
responsibility.
iv.
Clarified that carry forward requests this year
were higher than last, but that so were the budgets, so that proportionally the
capital carry forwards were not hugely different. Highlighted that Covid-19 is
delaying repairs and planned works in 2020/21 and may affect the ability to
appropriately invest funds carried forward. Further details on the catch up process would be available later in the year.
The Committee resolved by 10 votes to 0 with 3 abstentions
to endorse part 1 of the recommendation
The Committee resolved by 5 votes to 0 with 3 abstentions to endorse part 2 of the recommendation.
The Executive Councillor
approved the recommendations.
Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any
Dispensations Granted)
No conflicts of interest
were declared by the Executive Councillor.