Issue - meetings

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Matthews)

Report of Director for Communities and the Environment and the Chief Finance Officer

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Matthews)

Cabinet received a report from the Director for Communities and the Environment and the Chief Finance Officer that sought Cabinet decisions on Council Housing rent setting proposals and HRA revenue and capital budget proposals.

The options, options analysis, including risk assessment and officer preferred option, were set out in the report as follows:

The options with regards to rent setting were set out under section 4 of the report, the maximum permitted increase for existing tenants being 7.0% for 2023/24. By applying this increase, it allowed for a budget that could deliver on the Council’s ambitions on improving housing standards and addressing the climate change emergency, whilst adhering to the Rent Standard and legislative requirements.

In relation to garage rents, the previous decision was to freeze rents for 2022/23. In order to protect current occupancy and income levels, and in line with sector benchmarking, a further 12-month freeze was recommended. Garage rents and occupancy would remain under review.

With regard to the revenue budget generally, Cabinet could consider other proposals that might influence spending in current and future years, as long as their financing was considered and addressed and coherent with the legislative and regulatory requirements of a Registered Provider.

The options available in respect of the minimum level of HRA balances were to increase the level to £750K in line with the advice of the Section 151 Officer, or adopt a different level. Should Members choose not to accept the advice on the level of balances, then this should be recorded formally in the minutes of the meeting, and it could have implications for the Council’s financial standing, as assessed by its external auditor.

The options available in respect of the Capital Programme were:

i)                 To approve the programme in full, with the financing as set out;

ii)                 ii) To incorporate other increases or reductions to the programme, with appropriate sources of funding being identified.

Any risks attached to the above would depend on measures Members proposed, and their impact on the council housing service and its tenants. As such, a full options analysis could only be undertaken once any alternative proposals were known, and Officers might require more time in order to do this.