Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record

These minutes were approved and signed as a correct record.

All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as

possible thereafter:

(i) any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPIs) and / or

(ii) other interests arising under the Code of Conduct

in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at the meeting. Anyone with a DPI must, unless a dispensation has been granted, withdraw from the meeting during consideration of the relevant item of business. If in doubt, advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer or her staff prior to the meeting.

The Chair declared a pecuniary interest in agenda item 7 (HRA budget - Minute 243 below) on the basis that he rents Council garages on behalf of three community organisations in Warlingham. During that item, he left the Chamber for the discussion and voting on the setting of garage rents for 2022/23.  

A proposed enforcement policy for private sector housing was presented. It explained how the environmental health team (operating within the Tandridge / Mole Valley environmental health and licensing partnership) would regulate housing standards. The policy provided an overview of relevant legislation and the range of enforcement powers available. The intention was to raise standards in private sector housing throughout the District in collaboration with landlords, letting agents and tenants.

Section 11 of the policy dealt with civil penalties for offences under the Housing Act and is reproduced at Appendix A. Paragraph 4.1 of the covering report referred to the power to charge for serving notices under the Housing Act and stated that:

        “The Council has the power, under the Housing Act 2004, to make a charge as a means of recovering certain administrative and other expenses incurred in serving certain Housing Act notices. The charge for each notice will be based on time spent by the officer in gaining entry to a property, visiting and inspecting the property to determine appropriate action and the administration costs for the production of a Notice or Order. The charge is determined in accordance with the Fees and Charges Principles … it is proposed that charges are introduced in the next financial year 2022/23.”

In response to Members’ questions, it was confirmed that:

·      The statutory framework of the policy did not extend to addressing Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) the legal powers for which were provided by the ASB Crime & Policing Act 2014. Housing Associations were able to adopt the provisions of that Act although many chose not to do so and, in Tandridge, ASB enforcement was led by the police in partnership with other agencies, including the Council via the Community Safety Partnership. It was also confirmed that officers attend the Tandridge Private Landlords Forum as means of engaging with the private rented sector. 

·      A paragraph could be added to the policy regarding gas safety standards (i.e. in addition to electrical safety standards which had been included to draw attention to recent statutory provisions, namely the ‘Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020’).

·      The term ‘Temporary Exemption Notice’ for houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) was a statutory definition which could not be altered in the policy. The environmental health team continued to monitor situations where such notices were served (e.g. where a landlord was taking steps to cease the operation of an HMO and to make the property non-licensable).

·      Within the team, one full time Environmental Health Officer was dedicated to private sector housing standards within Tandridge (such officers are professionally qualified).

·      The proposal to delegate authority to the Executive Head of Communities to make ‘minor amendments’ to the policy would involve incidental updates and would not amount to material changes.

·      While the power to impose civil penalties is intended to make landlords more inclined to fulfill their statutory duties, the imposition of such penalties would be a matter of last resort and the associated income is unlikely to present a meaningful contribution for investment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 241.

A proposed draft 2022/23 revenue budget and capital programme was presented. This explained that, due to current capacity constraints, a pragmatic approach had been taken regarding the distribution of pressures and savings to achieve a balanced budget position for 2022/23, namely:

Tranche 1 – savings and pressures which were straightforward to allocate (Appendix B).

Tranche 2 – those requiring more time to allocate correctly to each committee, including £367k of pressures (£193k of staffing increments and £174k of contract inflation) plus savings of £200k regarding staff vacancies. These were being held as ‘corporate items’ pending consideration during the next cycle of committee meetings.

Tranche 3 – the more complex cross-cutting savings totalling £450k, which would require service reviews and business cases to ensure accurate distribution to committees.  The recently established Benefits Board would oversee this process to ensure that the benefits were being defined, owned and delivered.  These budgeted savings were being held as ‘corporate items’ pending consideration during the June cycle of committee meetings.

In response to questions during the debate, Officers explained that:

·           reference in the covering report to a loss of rental income from Redstone House should be read in light of the fact that:

-       the property is being marketed for sale and already vacant;

-       retention of the property would entail costly maintenance liabilities 

·           the cessation of funding for the Westway Centre was in accordance with the terms of the lease to the CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) and officers were working proactively with trustees to enable them to access grant funding from other sources and generate rental income by sub-letting parts of the premises.

Regarding the recommendation to increase rentals for plots and garages at the Meadowside mobile homes park by 4.1% (in line with HRA rents for Council tenants) Councillor Morrow, seconded by Councillor Steeds, moved an amendment that the increase be capped at 2%, with the £468k revenue budget for the Housing General Fund being increased accordingly. Arguments for and against this amendment were discussed. Upon being put to the vote, the amendment was lost on the Chair’s casting vote.          

            R E S O L V E D – that:

A.     the Committee’s draft General Fund revenue budget for 2022/23 of £468k, as shown in Appendix B, taking account of pressures and savings allocated as part of Tranche 1 be agreed, and it be noted that that a further two tranches of pressures and savings currently held in corporate items on behalf of other Committees will be distributed over the coming months;

B.     the Housing Committee’s General Fund draft capital programme for 2022/23 in the sum of £460k for 2022/23, as shown in Appendix C, be agreed;

C.     the subjective revenue budgets in Appendix D, including movements from 2020/21 to 2022/23 and an estimated movement to 2023/24, be noted;

D.    it be noted that, due to timing and capacity constraints across the Council, c£0.7m of savings (as part of a £1.1m savings programme) and c£0.4m of pressures could not be allocated in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 242.

A report was submitted to enable the Committee to consider a draft HRA revenue budget and capital programme for 2022/23. This explained that the HRA is a separate, ring-fenced account, paid from tenants’ rents and service charges and governed by a regime based on a national system of self-financing. The report highlighted:

·           new rules for the Right to Buy (RTB) although these would not provide additional resources for Tandridge given the relatively low number of RTB’s in the District per annum;

·           the ceiling for annual ‘social’ and ‘affordable’ rent increases of 4.1% (i.e. CPI at September 2021 + 1%)

The report explained that the current HRA business plan was based on a scheduled £2.85m loan repayment for 2022/23 being refinanced to allow sufficient resources for funding the Council house building programme. It also confirmed that the opening revenue balances for 2022/23 were approximately £6.5m, £1.7m of which was earmarked to support new build schemes.  Any surplus generated by the HRA in the year would be apportioned between the ‘new build’ and ‘repairs’ reserves on a two-thirds / one-third basis as previously agreed. The permitted 4.1% increase for ‘social’ and ‘affordable’ rents was recommended. It was also proposed that rents for garages and service charges be increased by the same percentage. 

The Committee received a presentation from Jeremy Cookson, the Council’s HRA Consultant, which illustrated:

·           the budget changes for 2022/23 in terms of the variations in costs and savings relative to the current year – this would reduce the transfer to reserves by £124,000 (although the HRA would still generate a surplus)

·           the HRA capital programme, with provision for £16.5m of new build expenditure between 2022/23 and 2024/25

·           base projections to 2050/51 of HRA debt / balances and sources of funding for the capital programme

·           the impact of alternative new development scenarios on the HRA business plan from 2024/25 to 2031/32 (i.e. 9 units per annum to replace those sold via the Right to Buy; an accelerated programme of 35 units per annum; and the same accelerated programme but with rent increases limited to CPI).

The presentation concluded that, while there was a scope for sustaining a Council house building programme in future years, longer term grant funding should be sought to offset limitations in the availability of finite Right to Buy receipts. The potential advantage of borrowing now for investment in future years was also highlighted. Jeremy Cookson responded to Members’ questions following the presentation.

During the following debate on the report, the intention to install new gas boilers in housing properties (as part of the energy efficiency scheme within the capital programme) was discussed, including a suggestion that this was at odds with the statement that there were no significant climate change implications. Officers also undertook to explain to Members (after the meeting) how the summary budget table in paragraph 3.9 of the report reconciles with Appendix F to these minutes (the main difference being that the latter includes the allocation of staffing costs).

The Executive Head of Communities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 243.