Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet approval for the Denbighshire Housing annual rent increase, the Housing Revenue Account Capital and Revenue Budgets for 2020/21 and Housing Stock Business Plan.

RESOLVED that –

(a)       the Housing Revenue Account Budget for 2020/21 (Appendix 1 to the report) and the Housing Stock Business Plan (Appendix 2 to the report) be adopted, and

(b)       rents for Council dwellings be increased in accordance with the Welsh Government Policy for Social Housing Rents to an average weekly rent of £92.35 with effect from Monday 6 April 2020.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill presented the report seeking Cabinet approval for the Denbighshire Housing annual rent increase, the Housing Revenue Account Capital and Revenue Budgets for 2020/21 and Housing Stock Business Plan.

Councillor Thompson-Hill guided members through the budget figures and income level assumptions taking into account the purchase of 7 former council homes and 3 private sector homes and the programme of 170 additional homes.  In terms of the annual rent increase the Welsh Government had recently announced a five year rent policy for social housing rents and the setting of rents had been calculated taking that policy into account and mechanism for uplifting rents.  The uplift for 2020/21 was 2.7% and would leave 44% of homes at target rent levels resulting in an average weekly rent of £92.35 which was at the lower end of the target rent level.  There was no proposal to use the discretionary charge of up to £2.00 for properties below the target rent.  Reference was also made to the disaggregated service charges which would average out at £2.27 per week.

The Lead Officer – Community Housing highlighted the merits of a five year rent policy to better enable future budget planning.  As part of the new policy the Council was required to ensure that any rent increase considered affordability for tenants and also assessments of cost effectiveness which would be presented in future reports to members.  Other future considerations included an expected announcement on the decarbonisation of council housing stock and the expectation for social landlords not to evict tenants into homelessness.

During consideration of the report the following issues were discussed –

·         the provision for bad debt had increased but it catered for the worst case scenario and collection rates remained high and rent arrears low.  Given that there were weekly tenancies there was an issue with cash flow for those on Universal Credit which was paid monthly but work was being undertaken to identify any potential difficulties at an early stage with support provided to tenants.  The potential increase in bad debts also recognised the commitment to increase housing stock and annual rent increases in line with the rent policy

·         it was noted that garages were not dealt with in the report because they were not subject to the rent policy and the Head of Communities and Customers had agreed to increase garage rents by 2.7%  in line with housing rents.  Officers reported upon the review of garage sites with only one site in Ruthin being suitable for housing as an alternative use.  The intention was to consider garage sites as part of the strategic review of housing stock taking into account the climate change crisis and environmental impacts to ensure future sustainability

·         the overall positive impact on the Welsh language identified in the Wellbeing Impact Assessment had been noted but Councillor Emrys Wynne queried the ambiguity of the term ‘rural areas’ in the document and felt it was an unnecessary differentiation given the number of Welsh speakers across the whole county.  Officers elaborated upon the local lettings policy which gave priority in rural areas to people from the community to help with protecting the future use of the Welsh language in communities and advised that the policy was very specific which areas of the county that related to, confirming that it was the very small villages where Welsh language was one of the considerations.  It was accepted that Welsh was spoken across the whole county.

RESOLVED that –

(a)       the Housing Revenue Account Budget for 2020/21 (Appendix 1 to the report) and the Housing Stock Business Plan (Appendix 2 to the report) be adopted, and

(b)       rents for Council dwellings be increased in accordance with the Welsh Government Policy for Social Housing Rents to an average weekly rent of £92.35 with effect from Monday 6 April 2020.

At this juncture (11.10 a.m.) the meeting adjourned for a refreshment break.