Agenda item

Councillor Bhatti submits a report advising the Cabinet on the position at period 7 on this years capital programme, revises the forecast for the 2004/05 out-turn and proposes a three year housing capital strategy for 2005-08. The Cabinet is recommended to consider the comments of the Housing Scrutiny Committee and consider a number of recommendations outlined in the report.

The relevant minute extract from the Housing Scrutiny Committee held on 20 January 2005 will be circulated as soon as it is available.

Councillor Getliffe declared a personal interest in the report in view of him being a Council tenant. Councillor Draycott also declared a personal interest in the report as a member of her family was a Council tenant. However under paragraph 10 (d) of the Members’ Code of Conduct, they regarded themselves as not having a prejudicial interest as long as the discussion did not relate to individual tenancies.

The Corporate Director of Housing left the room for the duration of this item due to his position as Company Secretary of HomeCome.

Councillor Bhatti submitted a report advising Cabinet on the position at period 7 on this years capital programme, revising the forecast for the 2004/05 outturn and proposing a three year capital programme for 2005-08. The minute extract from the Housing Scrutiny Committee held on 20 January 2005 was circulated

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet approve and recommend to Council where a Council decision is required as follows:

(1)       the revised Housing Capital programme for 2004/05 and funding arrangements outlined in paragraph 3.2 of the Supporting Information, and authorise the Head of Legal Services to enter into any contracts necessary to maximise the spend against the revised programme,

(2)       the resources shown in appendix 2 of the Supporting Information, including the use of Housing maintenance DSO Profits, Housing Balances(£2.5m in 05/06 and £1.5m in 06/07 and £1.5m in 07/08) and £24m from utilising the Prudential Borrowing Framework to support the Housing Capital Programme (£12m in 2005/06, £6m in 2006/07 and £6m in 2007/08),

(3)       the Housing Capital Programme for 2005/08 outlined in Appendix 3, including a small level (3.5%) of over programming, and to delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Housing in consultation with the Cabinet Lead Member for Housing to authorise any contracts, and to authorise the Head of Legal Services to sign any contracts within the overall programme to achieve a maximum spend against the resources available,

(4)               The delegation of authority to the Service Director (Resources) in consultation with the Cabinet Lead for Housing and Corporate Director for Resources, Access and Diversity to approve, within the 2005/06 programme, a grant of £3m to Homecome to acquire properties in accordance with the Leicester Strategy for Affordable Housing and the Housing Needs Survey, but to limit the amount that can be used in the purchase of any individual property to 75% of the total purchase price and that the Council take a proportionate equity stake in any properties purchased, subject to the Town Clerk and Service Director (Resources) being satisfied that adequate controls and management arrangements are in place

(5)       to note that the 2005/06 Programme will be reviewed during the financial year and that 2006/08 Programmes will be subject to further ratification as part of the normal annual budget cycles (in particular commitment to use prudential borrowing will be reviewed at this time) and,

(6)       the delegation of authority to approve bids from Community Associations under the Capital Receipts Initiative allocation  to the Corporate Director of Housing in consultation with the Cabinet Lead Member for Housing.