Council and democracy
Home > Council and Democracy > Issue
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.
i.
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.
ii.
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.