Decision details

The Chairman advised Members that it would be more appropriate to consider items 8 and 9 together and then agree the recommendations in each report.

The Housing Portfolio Holder presented the report to Members.

He reminded Members of the background to the report. He advised Members that there were three options to consider, these were to either ignore the 305 properties, the authority could borrow the money or use its own resources to fund the work. He stated that this was the preferred option. He advised Members that this resource would be detailed in the outturn report later on the agenda. He went on to draw Members’ attention to the minutes of the Policy Development Group and stated that Members of the Group had requested a presentation to all Councillors on the impact of the Decent Homes Improvement Programme on the HRA Business Plan.

The Chairman invited Councillor M B Wyatt to speak to the item.

Councillor M B Wyatt stated that on the whole the feedback that he had received from tenants in his ward had been very positive in relation to the work that had been carried out through the programme, however there were a few tenants that were not receiving the level of work that should be expected. He added that tenants where being left with minor problems, that when reported to the contractors, the tenants were feeling extremely frustrated by the lack of communication from the contractors. Councillor M B Wyatt felt that communication and final inspections on the properties could be improved. He concluded by stating that once issues had been reported to officers they were rectified straight away and that his concerns were with the contractors.

The Head of Housing thanked Councillor M B Wyatt for the positive comments and advised Members that he was in ongoing conversations with Councillor M B Wyatt and any new issues raised by him would be investigated and rectified.

Councillor T J Pendleton stated that all the houses in his ward that had required work had been completed with only one snag, that had been dealt with and he was very pleased with how the work had been done.

Councillor R Blunt stated that he was pleased the work was on target and congratulated the Portfolio Holder, the Head of Housing and the team for their hard work.

It was moved by Councillor R D Bayliss, seconded by Councillor T J Pendleton and

RESOLVED THAT:

Cabinet

1.    Notes the reduction in the number of grant eligible properties and the consequent reduction in backlog funding grant as detailed in section 4.0 of this report, and the projected additional cost of making all identified non decent homes meet the decent homes standard by March 2015.

2.    Considers the outcome of the Policy Development Group's consideration of this matter at their meeting on 16 July 2014.

3.    Recommends to Council the revised 2014/15 Housing Capital Programme and HRA budget as detailed in appendix a and b of this report to fund the completion of all the required work, and the amended prudential indicators detailed in appendix c as a departure from the current budget.

Reason for decision: To make recommendations to Council for funding to complete the Decent Homes Programme.