Issue - meetings

Recommendation i was chaired by Diana Minns (Vice Chair) and recommendation ii was chaired by Councillor Pounds.

Matter for Decision

The report presented for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

-  A summary of actual income and expenditure compared to the final budget for 2022/23 (outturn position).

-  Revenue and capital budget variances with explanations

-  Specific requests to carry forward funding available from both revenue and capital budget underspends into 2023/24

-  A summary of housing debt which was written off during 2022/23.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Housing and Homelessness

      i.         Approved carry forward requests totalling £334,670 in revenue funding from 2022/23 into 2023/24, as detailed in Appendix C of the officer’s report.

    ii.         Recommends to Council the approval of carry forward requests of £15,880,000 in HRA and General Fund Housing capital budgets and associated resources from 2022/23 into 2023/24 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 Assistant Head of Finance and Business Manager said the following in response to Members’ questions:

      i.         Delays had arisen in relation to the Water Conservation Project; these were due to delays in procuring the water analysis work and the implementation of the project as the Council had been unable to recruit a Corporate Energy Manager for over a year. The external consultant’s report had now been completed. Staff in the teams were working up the pilot activity to implement work from the consultant’s report.

    ii.         A number of void properties had been returned to the Council which had required significant expenditure and had resulted in an overspend on repairs. With these particular properties the Council had to consider whether it was financially viable to cover the costs of the repairs or whether it was more prudent to sell the property. The tenancy audit programme should enable the Council to monitor the condition of properties and therefore reduce the number of voids returned in a poor condition. Officers needed to review whether to continue using sub-contractors to undertake housing repair work or whether this should be delivered in-house.

   iii.         Sub-contractor capacity to undertake housing repairs should improve; delays had arisen due to a procurement exercise being undertaken. The incumbent contractor had been re-awarded the contract so service levels should return back to normal quicker than if a new contractor had been awarded the contract. Advised that there were still problems sourcing materials as a result of Brexit.

  iv.         The Council struggled to recruit into certain roles where there was competition for similar roles in the private sector for example the Energy Manager Post. 

The Committee resolved by (10 votes to 0 with 3 abstentions) to endorse recommendation i.

The Committee resolved by (6 votes to 0 with 3 abstentions) to endorse recommendation ii.

The Executive Councillor approved recommendations i and ii.

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.