Issue - meetings

Councillor Draycott submits a report seeking approval to the Housing Capital Programme for 2001/02 for recommendation to Council.  The views of the Housing Scrutiny Committee will be reported to the meeting.

Councillor Draycott submitted a report reviewing the current year's approved Housing Capital Programme and, following receipt of the Council's housing investment allocation recommending a programme for 2001/2002.

RESOLVED:

(1)that the revised programme for 2000/2001, as detailed in Appendix A of the report, be approved;

(2)that it be noted that the City Council had been designated for the third year running by the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, as one of only 28 authorities out of 354 in the country, as a "well above average housing authority", which is the highest designation an authority can get under the Housing Investment Programme process and note that this achievement puts the Council amongst the top 8% of housing authorities in the country;

(3)that it be noted that the Authority's Housing Investment Programme allocation, excluding Disabled Facilities Grants for 2001/2002 was 17.18% up on the 2000/2001 figure and in addition, Leicester's allocation for disabled facilities grants was up by 35.85% compared to a national average of 18.11%, meaning that in total, resources to support capital expenditure from Government was up by over 100% in the last two years;

(4)that approval be given for the use of resources shown in paragraph 2.3 of the supporting information in the report, including the use of £200,000 from Housing Maintenance DSO profits, to support the Housing Capital Programme in 2001/2002;

(5)that approval be given for the Housing Capital Programme for 2001/2002 as detailed in Appendix B of the report, which showed an overall spend of £25.405 million and allowed for a small amount of over-programming (2.63%);

(6)that approval be given for the capitalisation of £700,000 of expenditure currently charged to the Housing Revenue Account;

(7)that it be noted that under the programme the Council will, in the next financial year, spend:-

£4.5 million on UPVC double glazed windows (2,600 properties)

£700,000 on rewiring (700 properties)

£1.2 million on reroofing (600 dwellings)

£2.2 million on new central heating/district heating systems

£1.25 million on kitchen and bathroom modernisations

£400,000 on new door entry systems

£2.4 million on disabled adaptations and disabled facility grants

£150,000 on providing showers and lifts in Warden Assisted Accommodation

£600,000 for one-off bungalow extensions

Provide £120,000, in addition to the £30,000 already provided under the environmental budget, for initiatives in each of the six Community Association/Tier 2 areas;

(8)that a further report be presented to a future meeting outlining the criteria under which Community Associations can recommend schemes for their areas; and

(9)that a further report be presented outlining the schemes proposed under the neighbourhood strategy.