Agenda item

To present the 2021/22 forecast outturn position against the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) revenue budgets and Capital Programme that the Committee is responsible for, in order to give an expectation of possible variances against budget.

The Principal Accountant introduced the report to the Committee, they then summarised the main variances from each of the budgets:

General Fund Revenue Budget

·        Table 1 on page 14 of the reports pack showed an underspend of £7k.

General Fund Capital Programme

·        Table 2 on page 15 of the reports pack showed a total underspend of £361k.

·        £230k underspend on the Disabled Facilities Grant Scheme due to a backlog of referrals for an occupational therapist within the County Council.

·        £195k underspend on the Green Homes Local Authority Delivery Scheme (LADS) Park Homes due to the alignment of the grant.

·        £50k overspend on the Green Homes LADS 3 due to a new grant for energy efficiency improvements.

·        £50k underspend on the Health through Warmth Grant due to the insulation grants.

·        £50k overspend on the Home Upgrade Grant – Sustainable Warmth due to the new grant bid.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

·        Table 3 on page 16 of the document pack showed a total overspend of £836k.

·        Total Income - £377k overspend.

·        Supervision and Management - £387k underspend.

·        Repairs and Maintenance - £762k overspend.

·        Other Expenditure - £61k overspend.

HRA Capital Programme

·        Table 5 on page 19 of the document pack showed a total overspend of £59k.

·        Total Major Works showed a £14k underspend due to works deferred later into the next financial year.

·        Total Other Capital Works - £435k had been allocated for the implementation of the new Housing System.

·        New build and Regeneration showed a £73k overspend due to slippage, costs rising and start time delays due to Covid. 

In response to Councillor Davis, the Strategic Director of Communities explained that they could not comment on specific cases during a meeting, these would need to be raised outside the meeting.

After a question raised by Councillor Green, the Strategic Director of Communities confirmed that the increase in tenants leaving their tenancies had remained high and this was due to a number of reasons which included:

·        Tenant’s personal circumstances.

·        Tenants moving into care homes or similar.

·        Tenants who had passed away.

Councillor Housden questioned the savings made on item 4.8 (page 14) of the report and further questioned whether the situation in Ukraine would have had an impact. The Housing Manager confirmed that through working with a partner organisation they had changed the way that the temporary accommodation scheme was delivered which is how they managed to make the savings. She further informed the Committee that the current situation with Ukraine shouldn’t affect that specific budget however it could impact other parts of the Housing budget.

The Interim Head of Strategic Housing Services explained about the hosting scheme for people to offer housing opportunities to Ukrainian refugees. They further explained that should any of those placements fail, it was likely that the Council would be asked to step in to provide accommodation.

Councillor Housden repeated his earlier question regarding the loss of £1.1m in the budget due to voids. The Accountancy Manager explained that the figures shown in the graphs were pressures against the budgets. They further explained in detail that the figures were only an estimate and therefore could not be counted as a loss. They also mentioned that the pressures were against the repairs and maintenance budget as a whole and therefore not solely representative of the voids.

Mr Ritcher, the Tenant Representative asked for confirmation that the savings against the kitchens and bathrooms, as seen in table 5 on page 19 of the reports pack, would be carried forward to the next financial year. The Principal Accountant confirmed that this was the case. After a further question on the topic, the Head of Housing Services explained that there were works that were deferred into the following year due to the increased costs of labour and the difficulties surrounding Covid guidance causing less workers on site.

In response to Councillor Housden the Head of Property Services confirmed that item 5.5 on page 17 of the document pack showed an additional £250k which was allocated to the ongoing work on the void properties.

Councillor Jockel proposed and Councillor Baker seconded.

Councillor Baker thanked the Officers for the report and explained it was an extremely difficult year and she was pleased to see that things were improving.

This was echoed by Councillors Miles and Schoemaker.

The Councillors debated the following topics at length:

·        The length of time void properties spent empty.

·        The Councils priorities on larger projects.

·        The length of time utilities took to repair issues and visit a property.

Councillor Schoemaker raised a point that this was reporting the year in which there were still Covid lockdowns, material costs had risen, and labour was increasingly difficult due to self-isolation. He further explained that whilst he was happy with those figures now if they remained unchanged in 12 months’ time then they would be questioning them.

Councillor Hynd also raised the point that due to the nature of the HRA, there were no grants available for the larger costs that Covid had caused such as Personal Protectve Equipment (PPE).

The Chair, Councillor Ross, commended the officers for their report and their hard work to reduce the number of voids to pre-covid levels.

Councillor Jockel expressed his support for the report and stated he was proud to be part of a Council that provided social housing to the community.

After being put to a vote, the Motion was carried with 7 votes in favour and 4 abstentions.

RESOLVED    To note the outturn forecast for the General Fund and HRA revenue budgets and the Capital Programmes for this Committee.