Decision Maker: Place Committee
Decision status: For Determination
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
The Corporate Services Manager submitted a report regarding
the settings of the rents of Council dwellings, approval for thee HRA estimates
for 2019-20 and the setting of the working balance for 2019-20.
The Corporate Services Manager, highlighted 3.1 (b) of the
report in that following the budget in 2015 social rents were reduced by 1% resulting in rents in 2019/2020
being £310k less than they could be bringing the average rent to £74.20 per
week. However, a recent consultation
paper on rents has been issued which suggests that from 2020-2021 rents will be
able to increase once again by CPI + 1%.
This is reflected in Appendix A.
The Corporate Services Manager brought members attention to
section 3.3 of the report highlighting that there has been an increase in
arrears from the move to Universal Credit which could be critical to the
business plan as 45% of MBC tenants are claiming Universal Credit. In the period April to September 2018 the
number of MBC tenants in receipt of Universal Credit in arrears increased from
83 to 148; the majority of new rent accounts do not receive payment until week
6 at the earliest.
There is a continuing contribution of £80k in 2019-202 to
the General Fund from the HRA to support this via the ‘Me and My Learning’
scheme.
The Corporate Services Manager advised that budget proposals
for 2019-2020 are set based on conditions known at this time however, as other
priorities are developed which will impact on the HRA budgets these will be
considered in conjunction with the HRA Business Plan and the Council’s Capital
Strategy and will be brought back to committee in due course.
Councillor De-Burle proposed the recommendations and
Councillor Blase seconded the motion.
All voted in favour.
RESOLVED that
(1) A rent decrease of 1% for all Council dwellings for
2019-20 will take effect from 1 April 2019 and that when a property is re-let
the rent continues to be brought into line with the Governments formula rent
was approved;
(2) The estimates for 2019-20, subject to the receipt
of the limit rent Determination, were approved;
(3) Delegated authority will be given to the
Director for Corporate Services in consultation with the Deputy Chief Executive
to amend the estimated working balance based on any changes to this
determination be approved with changes reported back to committee;
(4) A working balance of £963,579 budgeted for at 31 March 2020 based on a 1%
rent decrease will be approved.
Report author: Dawn Garton
Publication date: 09/01/2019
Date of decision: 09/01/2019
Decided at meeting: 09/01/2019 - Place Committee
Accompanying Documents: