Issue - meetings

Purpose of Report

To present and approve a new Rent & Service Charge Setting Policy for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) owned social housing.

RECOMMENDATION

To approve the new Rent & Service Charge Setting Policy (Appendix A) for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) owned social housing.

Mark Fitch, Head of Local Authority Housing, presented the report, the purpose of which was to present and approve a new Rent & Service Charge Setting Policy for the HRA owned social housing.

Members' Questions

There were no questions.

Chair's Comment

The Chair stressed that this item was not for setting the rent and service charges but was just for setting out the parameters within which they could be set.

The Chair referred to paragraph 3.7 of the report.  He stated he expected the Government to continue the policy of capping rent rises at the Consumer Index plus 1% and that the indications were this would be for the next 10 years which allowed a certain amount of certainty.  He also noted the proposal of past governments to reduce rents by 1% each year meant the council could not maximise the amount of money spent on improving peoples' homes but that was a government regulation and were the parameters within which the council could work.  He requested that the CPI plus 1% policy be put into the relevant policy once formal clarification had been received from the Treasury.

The Chair hoped that policy would be extended to the private rented sector.

DECISION

The Cabinet Member approved the new Rent & Service Charge Setting Policy (Appendix A) for the HRA owned social housing.