Issue - decisions

Matter for Decision

The report presented for the Housing Revenue Account:

·      A summary of actual income and expenditure compared to the final budget for 2023/24 (outturn position)

·      Revenue and capital budget variances with explanations

·      Specific requests to carry forward funding available from both revenue (confirmation of in principle decisions made in March 2024) and capital budget underspends into 2024/25.

·      A summary of housing debt which was written off during 2023/24.

 

Decision of Executive Councillor for Housing

      i.         Approved carry forward requests totalling £562,600 in revenue funding from 2023/24 into 2024/25, as detailed in Appendix C of the officer’s report.

    ii.         To recommend to council to approve carry forward requests of £12,507,000 in HRA and General Fund Housing capital budgets and associated resources from 2023/24 into 2024/25 and beyond to fund re-phased net capital spending, as detailed in Appendix D and the associated notes to the appendix in the officer’s report.

   iii.         To recommend to council to approve a revised capital financing structure for 2023/24, utilising £8 million of capital reserves set-aside for either debt redemption or re-investment, in place of borrowing and direct revenue financing of capital. This recognises the current high interest rates for borrowing and the need to maintain a prudent level of revenue reserves following the requirement to allow for payment of rent refunds arising from the rent regulation error.

 

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.         Would feedback to officers the concerns raised about the underspend on smoke detectors; officers would need to consider how to resolve access issues into properties which prevented the smoke detector work being undertaken.

    ii.         Some of the rephased funding for the capital programme would be rephased into future years as it was recognised that continuing to rephase funding into the following year, could create difficulties for contactors if they did not have sufficient capacity to deliver potentially 2 years’ worth of work in 1 year.

   iii.         The 30-year investment programme would be revisited as part of the medium-term financial strategy which would be considered by the Committee in November.

  iv.         Confirmed that future gross and income charts would include the total expenditure and income within them.

    v.         The public loan rate was 5.5% but assumptions within the budget were made at approximately 4% so the loan rates were higher than had been planned for.

  vi.         Noted concerns raised about the underspend on disabled facilities grants (DFGs) and commented that this service was ‘demand-led’ and therefore dependent on people applying for the grant. Also noted comments about sign-posting people to appropriate resources. Processes were in place to sign-post / assist applicants and officers were currently making sure that Policies were published on the Council’s website. 

 vii.         Noted that DFGs were for people who did not live in council accommodation. Adaptations for council tenants had a separate process.

 

Post meeting note: In response to a question raised at the meeting about how long people stayed in temporary accommodation before they were able to move into permanent accommodation. The average stay in temporary accommodation was currently around 206 days. The number of households who were in temporary accommodation on the date of the committee meeting was 169 households.

 

The Committee resolved to endorse the recommendations:

-       i - by 10 votes to 0 against with 4 abstentions.

-       ii and iii by 6 votes in favour 0 against and 3 abstentions

 

 

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.