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This item was Chaired by Diana Minns (Vice Chair)
Matter for
Decision
As
part of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) medium-term financial strategy
(MTFS), Housing Scrutiny Committee approved £1 million per annum for 5 years of capital funding for estate
improvements. These funds are available from 1st April 2019. An
additional revenue resource of £100,000 had been ear-marked in 2019/20 to allow
for any revenue investment required to support the programme.
The report introduced members and tenant and leaseholder representatives to the
approaches officers were taking to deliver those improvements.
Decision
of Executive Councillor for Housing
i.
Endorsed the approach taken by
officers to establish the Estates Improvement Scheme (EIS) as outlined in the
report.
ii.
Agreed that officers would
produce a written annual member briefing, outlining the progress made under
this programme, to be sent to all members by email at
each financial year end for the lifetime of the programme.
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 Housing.
The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:
i.
The estate walkabouts had been welcomed by
residents.
ii.
Councillor Massey suggested Councillors could
promote future walkabouts.
iii.
Stated that information to leaseholders needs to be
very clear regarding any future maintenance cost of improvements.
iv.
Suggested that hoardings could be used to inform
the public when improvement work was being undertaken.
v.
Expressed the hope that improvement work would look
at designing out crime.
vi.
Suggested that some works, such as street lights
work, might have been delayed in order to transfer the work to the improvements
budget.
The Head of Housing said the following in response to Members’
questions:
i.
Priorities in the improvement programme would be
shaped by safety issues and business decisions. Where possible the improvement
work would be completed alongside any planned maintenance work.
ii.
Walkabouts would be advertised in Open Door.
iii.
The service took a holistic approach regarding its
community responsibility. Estate improvements should not result in anti-social
behaviour being relocated to other areas.
Councillors asked if there was an easy way
to identify which street lights belonged to the City Council and which were the
responsibility of the County Council. Lynn Thomas (Head of Maintenance and
Asset Management) undertook to investigate this matter.
The Committee resolved by 11 votes to 0 to endorse the recommendations.
The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.