Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors B. Davies and R. Evans.

The Chair advised that no public questions had been received.

The Committee considered a report on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget and Housing Rent Setting for 2024/25, being presented as part of the budget consultation process, that brought together the latest proposals for the Revenue and Capital budgets for the Housing Revenue Account to be presented to the Cabinet and Council for determination.

The Committee was advised that the report had been prepared reflecting the latest proposals contained within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan, being the primary financial planning tool for delivering and maintaining the Carmarthenshire Homes Standard Plus (CHS+) for the future. The proposed investment within the current business plan delivered the CHS by 2015 (to those homes where the tenants agreed to have work undertaken) provided investment to maintain CHS+ and continued investment for the Housing Regeneration and Development Delivery Plan. 

The report also detailed how rents would increase for 2024/25 with the HRA budget being set to reflect:-

·       Social Housing Rent Policy (set by Welsh Government)

·       Proposals contained in the Carmarthenshire Housing Revenue Account Business Plan

·       Housing Regeneration and Development Delivery Plan

The Committee was reminded that with regard to the setting of the Housing Rents, the Authority on the 24^th February 2015 had adopted the Welsh Government’s Social Housing Rent Policy for the four year period ending in 2018/19 providing consistency over that period. For 2019/20, the Welsh Government had provided an interim policy while it awaited the results of the Affordable Housing Supply Review.  Following that review, the Welsh Government had decided to retain the policy for a further 5year period from 2020/21 with some additional/amended requirements, as detailed within the report.

This policy allowed local authorities to uplift the total rent envelope by CPI + 1% for each of the 5 years running from 2020/21to 2024/25. It also allowed for the level of rent for individual tenants to rise by up to an additional £2 over and above CPI+1% for the rent harmonisation, on condition that the total rental income collected by the social landlord increased by no more than CPI+1%.

However, should CPI fall outside the range of 0% to 3%, the policy provides for the Minister with responsibility for Housing to determine the appropriate change to rent levels to be applied for that year only. As CPI was 6.7% in September 2023, that clause had been activated this year and the Welsh Government Minister for Climate Change had instructed the maximum increase in the rent envelope for any local authority should not exceed 6.7%

Having regard to the above, the report recommended an average housing rent increase of 6.5% (£6.47) per dwelling per week. If the Committee endorsed that increase, it would result in a £293k surplus on the Housing Revenue Account. However, that had been accommodated for within the long-term plan leaving £12.6m in balances at the end of 2024/25. It was also noted that, as Detailed in Appendix A, balances were required to support the current strategy of funding capital expenditure and continuing to make the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Committee received a report on the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan 2024-27 Carmarthenshire Housing Investment Programme which

highlighted the importance of the Council supporting its tenants and residents in everything it did, with the following five key themes having been identified as driving the business forward over the next three years:-

-        Theme 1 – Our Estate and Tenancy Management Offer.

-        Theme 2 – Investing in Homes.

-        Theme 3 – Promoting affordable warmth and decarbonising our housing stock.

-        Theme 4 – Delivering more homes.

-        Theme 5 – The Local Economy, Community Benefits and Procurement

Those five themes were supported by the following actions:

• Introduce a new estate and tenancy management “offer” that will ensure housing officers are more visible and accessible on our estates. This “offer” will balance support for our tenants with enforcement activity where it is appropriate to do so. This will also be aligned to the implementation of a new pilot “handyperson” scheme on priority estates in Carmarthen, Ammanford, Llanelli and rural areas.
• Continue to keep the number of void properties at a low level and reduce the current back-log of day to day repairs. We plan to increase our in-house provision around day to day repairs and re-balance the current split between internal and external contractors.
• Continue to invest in making sure homes are cheaper to run for our tenants and in addition to installing solar panels as we replace roofs, we will develop a business case for the introduction of a wider programme of rooftop solar panels on estates.
• Due to the significant demand for new build homes, we will proactively acquire more land. This will include larger sites where there will be exclusive use for Council housing. This will put further pace and scale into our development programme;
• Further invest in specialist type housing (e.g. learning disability, older people and young person supported housing) to ensure needs are met in the most appropriate way. This will include smaller, more dispersed accommodation in different wards. This investment will also ensure a move away from expensive and inappropriate out of county placements for certain client groups; and
• Procure a new minor works framework for day-to-day repairs and wider improvement projects to ensure a quicker response and to support smaller local contractors across the County.

The Committee noted that income received from tenants’ rents and other sources enabled the building of an investment programme exceeding £277m (Capital - £113m and Revenue - £164m) to run services over the plan period. To maintain that level of investment, through careful financial planning, the level of projected rent increase for 2024/25 was 6.5%. which was below the September inflation rate of 6.7% and the maximum rental increase specified by the Housing Minister for 2024/25. The plan also incorporated £330k of revenue efficiencies over the next three years together with an application to the Welsh Government for a Major Repair Allowance (MRA) grant of £6.2m.

The Following questions/issues were raised on the report:

·       In  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Committee, in accordance with the decision made at its meeting on the 26^th January 2023, received a monitoring report on the effectiveness of the new Emergency Social Housing Allocation Policy developed by its Task and Finish Group. It was noted the content of the report included data for the previous period relating to:

1.     Proportion of properties directly matched and those advertised,

2.     Banding of clients directly matched,

3.     Number of properties directly matched and advertised by each community area, type of property and landlord,

4.     Proportion of direct matches that were successful,

5.     Number of direct matches where the client requested a review of the allocation and the outcome of those reviews,

6.     Number of direct matches where the client refused the allocation but didn’t request a review.

The following questions/ issues were raised on the report:-

·       It was confirmed that as the Council moved from the emergency allocations policy to a formal new policy, the qualitative intelligence and experience gained from the emergency policy would be analysed and used to inform that new policy.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the monitoring report be received.

(NOTE: Councillor R Sparks having earlier declared an interest in this item, re-declared the interest and remained in the meeting for its consideration)

The Committee received the 2023/24 Quarter 2 Performance Report for the period 1^st April to 30^th September 2023 in respect of the areas falling within its remit detailing the progress made against the actions and measures within the Corporate Strategy and on the delivery of the Well-Being Objectives.

The following questions / issues were raised on the report:

·       In response to a question raised on the feasibility of the report format being amended to a Themed divisional format to facilitate easier scrutiny of performance, it was noted the matter would be raised with the Council’s Performance Management Section.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the report be received.

The Committee received a report detailing the progress achieved in relation to requests or referrals emerging from previous meetings.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the report be received.

The Committee received a list of forthcoming items to be considered at its next meeting to be held on the 26^th January, 2024.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the list of forthcoming items to be considered at the next scheduled meeting on the 26^th January 2024 be approved.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 15^th November, 2023 be signed as a correct record.