Agenda item

HOUSING CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2009/10 AND 2010/15

The Leader has agreed to accept the above item on the grounds of urgency under Cabinet Procedure Rule 7d as the information contained within the report arrived late from the Government and Cabinet's views are required, before the report is considered at Council on 28 January 2010 as part of the budget consultation process.

HOUSING REVENUE ACCOUNT – BUDGET 2010/11

The Leader has agreed to accept the above item on the grounds of urgency under Cabinet Procedure Rule 7d as the information contained within the report arrived late from the Government and Cabinet's views are required, before the report is considered at Council on 28 January 2010 as part of the budget consultation process.

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO NOTE

Cabinet deals with most business in public but is legally entitled to consider certain items in private. Members of the public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting when such items are discussed.

Cabinet is recommended to consider whether or not to deal with the following reports in private on the grounds that they contain ‘exempt’ information as defined in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, as amended, and consequently that the Cabinet makes the following resolution:-

i.   “that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following reports in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because they involve the likely disclosure of 'exempt' information, as defined in the Paragraphs detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act; AND

ii.  taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

LEICESTER’S NEW BUSINESS GATEWAY                APPENDIX AOUB-B1

NEW BUSINESS QUARTER PHASE 2 (NBQ2)

Paragraph 3

Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the Authority holding that information)”.

Councillor Kitterick submits a report.

This report is considered urgent on the grounds that a decision is required by Cabinet on 25 January 2010 because of the need to move quickly to enter into the funding agreement to meet the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) timetable.

HOUSING CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2009/10 AND 2010/15

The Leader agreed to accept the above item on the grounds of urgency under Cabinet Procedure Rule 7d as the information contained within the report arrived late from the Government and Cabinet's views were required, before the report would be considered at Council on 28 January 2010 as part of the budget consultation process.

Councillor Westley submitted a report that advised Members on the position at period 7 on the capital programme, revised the forecast for the 2009/10 out-turn and proposed a five year housing capital programme for 2010/2015 for Members approval. Councillor Westley explained that more money would be set aside to carry out disabled adaptations and disabled facilities grants. Cabinet was asked to note that the Tenants Performance Panel had fully supported the proposals contained within the report.

RESOLVED:

                        that Cabinet recommends Council to:

1)     approve the revised programme, outlined in Appendix 1, for 2009/10 and funding arrangements outlined in paragraph 3.2 of the Supporting Information, and authorise the Director of Legal Services to enter into any contracts necessary to maximise the spend against the revised programme;

2)     note the ongoing position concerning Right to Buy and other capital receipts and its impact on the General Fund side of the Housing Capital Programme;

3)     approve the resources shown in Appendix 2 of the report, including the use of Housing DSO Reserves, Housing Balances and the Prudential Borrowing Framework to support the Housing Capital Programme over the next five financial years;

4)     endorse the proposal that environmental works in Private Sector Home Improvement Areas should stop so more resources can be directed into energy efficiency measures (para 6.5);

5)     consider the Equality Impact Assessment appended to this report;

6)     approve the Housing Capital Programme for 2010/15 outlined at Appendix 3 including a small level (3.5%) of over programming, and delegate authority to the Divisional Director Housing Services in consultation with the Lead Cabinet Member for Housing to authorise any contracts, and the Director of Legal Services to sign any contracts within the overall programme, to achieve a maximum spend against the resources available;

7)     agree to ringfence any new housing capital receipts generated in year to support the Disabled Facility Grant (DFG) Programme;

8)     approve the use of any commuted sums realized in year for the acquisition of new affordable housing through either HomeCome or RSL’s.

9)  note that the 2010/11 Programme will be reviewed during the financial year, and the 2011 to 2015 Programmes will be subject to further scrutiny and ratification as part of the normal annual budget cycles (in particular, commitment to use prudential borrowing and HRA balances will be reviewed at this time); and

10)delegate, to the Divisional Director Housing Services and Lead Cabinet Member for Housing, authority to approve bids from Community Associations under the Environmental  and CRI allocations.

HOUSING REVENUE ACCOUNT – BUDGET 2010/11

The Leader agreed to accept the above item on the grounds of urgency under Cabinet Procedure Rule 7d as the information contained within the report arrived late from the Government and Cabinet's views were required, before the report would be considered at Council on 28 January 2010 as part of the budget consultation process.

Councillor Westley submitted a report that summarised the financial position of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for 2009/10 and 2010/11.  The approval of Members was sought for setting rents for 2010/2011 based on the Governments “formula” rents” and Members were asked to determine the level of service charges to be applied in 2010/11

Councillor Westley asked Members to note that the Tenants Performance Panel had fully supported the proposals contained within the report.

RESOLVED:

                        that Cabinet recommends Council to:

1)     note the estimated working balance of £2.387m at the start of 2010/11 and approve the base budget for 2010/11 as detailed at Appendix A, including using £550,000 to support the HRA Capital Programme in 2010/11;

2)           consider the issues outlined in the body of the report and in particular, the comments of the Performance Panel, which will be reported at the meeting;

3)           consider the Equality Impact Assessment at Appendix F of this report;

4)           approve the setting of rents for 2010/11 on the basis of “formula rents” which (for 2010/11 only) will require a uniform 2.5% increase in all rents, producing additional income for the HRA of £1.610m.

5)           approve the revised level of miscellaneous payments and charges to be applied in 2010/11, as detailed in Appendix C;

6)           approve the “prudential indicators” for the HRA, as detailed in Section 3.7 of the report and Appendix D;

7)           approve that £30,000 be added to the 2010/11 budget (and £125,000 in 2011/12 and then reducing in later years, as principal repayments reduce the outstanding loan) to facilitate £1.662m of new prudential borrowing being used to finance “Decent Homes” expenditure included in the 2010/11 HRA Capital Programme;

8)           approve that £82,000 be added to the 2010/11 budget (and £342,000 in 2011/12 and then reducing in later years, as principal repayments reduce the outstanding loan) to facilitate £4.547m of new prudential borrowing being used to finance the City Council’s contribution to the ‘New Build Challenge Fund Phase 1’ scheme included in the 2010/11 HRA Capital Programme.  It should be noted that this scheme was approved by Cabinet on 13 July 2009 and that the prudential borrowing costs in future years will be covered by the rental income on the new dwellings.

9)           approve that £68,000 be added to the 2010/11 budget (and £285,000 in 2011/12 and then reducing in later years, as principal repayments reduce the outstanding loan) to facilitate £3.786m of new prudential borrowing being used to finance the City Council's contribution to the "New Build Challenge Fund Phase 2" scheme included in the 2010/11 HRA Capital Programme. It should be noted that this scheme was approved by Cabinet on 5 October 2009 and that the prudential borrowing costs in future years will be covered by the rental income on the new dwellings.

10)       note that any costs relating to a new salary structure for craft and manual workers, or as a result of the introduction of the new Job Evaluation Scheme under Single Status, will be either met from savings due to the amalgamation of the Housing Management and Maintenance Divisions or contained within the HRA base budgets generally.