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16 HRA Provisional Carry Forwards 2023/24 PDF 156 KB
Minutes:
This item was
chaired by Diana Minns (Vice-Chair Tenant Representative).
Matter for
Decision
The report presented details of anticipated variances from
budgets, where resources were requested to be carried forward into the 2024/25
financial year in order to undertake or complete activities anticipated to have
taken place in 2023/24.
Decision
of Executive Councillor for Housing and Homelessness
i.
Agreed the provisional carry forward requests, totalling
£731,520 as detailed in Appendix A, subject to the final outturn position.
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 Head of Finance and Business Manager.
The Head of Finance and Business Manager said the following in response
to Members’ questions:
i.
In response to a question regarding work the
council had undertaken in preparation for the council becoming regulated by the
Housing Regulator:
a.
referred to the Rent Regulation Error Refund /
Remediation report (minute reference 24/20/HSC) where the council had reported
rent errors to the regulator and would be correcting the errors from April
2024; and
b.
referred to the Compliance Report (minute reference
24/15/HSC) and noted that data needed to be held in a particular format so work
was being undertaken to streamline the way the council held data to ensure the
council could respond to queries from the Regulator.
ii.
The Council could be inspected by the Regulator at
any point and the Council had put a project in place to ensure that the council
was compliant with recently published consumer standards and actions were put
in place where improvement was needed.
iii.
The Transformation Fund was set up to allow the
Housing Service to be able to respond to changes in legislation, requirements
from the Regulator and to allow the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) to contribute
to the corporate costs of transformation as part of the Our Cambridge
programme. Delegated authority was given to Directors to spend this fund.
Officers approved the funding of two temporary fixed term posts (Housing
Improvement Manager and Housing Improvement Officer) to deliver a restructure
of the City Services Group to improve services in the Estates and Facilities
repairs area.
iv.
DCM work was being picked up by a variety of
officers; a vacant post was used to combine the work into one job role.
v.
Officers would provide information on what
categories of expenditure the transformation fund was being used for within the
HRA Outturn Report.
The Committee resolved (by 9 votes to 0 with 3 abstentions) to endorse
the recommendation.
The Executive Councillor
approved the recommendation.
Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any
Dispensations Granted)
No conflicts of interest
were declared by the Executive Councillor.