Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mary Bailey and Mandy Buxey of the Residents Consortium.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Acquisition of Temporary Housing report by the Director for Housing, Neighbourhood and Building Services was omitted from the Forward Plan covering 10 January 2025 to 10 April 2025.  The Chair of the City Council's Scrutiny Management Panel has been notified and a public notice published.

The Acquisition of Temporary Housing by the Director of Housing, Neighbourhoods and Building Services, was omitted from the Forward Plan covering 10 January 2025 to 10 April 2025.  The Chair of the City Council's Scrutiny Management Panel had been notified and was content and a public notice published.

DECISION

The Cabinet Member:

1.    Noted the omission for the Forward Plan 10 January 2025 to 10 April 2025.

2.    Noted the publication of the notice.

Purpose of Report

To seek approval from the Cabinet Member for Housing and Tackling Homelessness to acquire a minimum of 200 properties for use as Temporary Accommodation in 2025/26 and 2026/27 (Homes for Temporary Accommodation Project).

To seek approval for capital expenditure of £31.28m to acquire and refurbish the 200 properties to be held in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the Cabinet Member for Housing and Tackling Homelessness:

1.    Approves HRA Capital Expenditure of £31.28m, to deliver a minimum of 200 units, phased £15.64m in 2025/26 and £15.64m in 2026/27.

2.    Delegates authority to the Director of Housing, Neighbourhood and Building Services, in consultation with the Director of Finance & Resources (S151 Officer), to agree the use of HRA unsupported borrowing to support each of these acquisitions based on an individual Financial Appraisal of estimated income and expenditure.

3.    Notes that a General Fund contribution of up to £1.87m from the MTRS Reserve has been approved by the S151 Officer to ensure the HRA does not incur a negative cash flow in the first 10 years after acquisition.

4.    Delegates to the Director of Housing, Neighbourhood and Building Services, in consultation with the City Solicitor, to enter contracts to support the acquisitions.

5.    Requests housing cabinet reports to be presented mid-year and end of year to report and update on the progress of the Homes for Temporary Accommodation Project.

Emma Randall, Interim Head of Housing Supply, presented the report, the purpose of which was to seek approval from the Cabinet Member to acquire a minimum of 200 properties to held in the Housing Revenue Account, for use as Temporary Accommodation in 2025/26 and 2026/27 (Homes for Temporary Accommodation).

Alan Denford, Housing Finance Manager, updated the meeting on the estimated annual cost savings to the General Fund and noted that overall, the project would have a positive effect on the HRA 30 year business plan.

Resident Consortium

In response to a question from the Resident Consortium, officers clarified:

·       In making an open market purchase, the service needed to ensure that it could recover the cost of that property purchase, which was the rationale for the affordable rent charge and meant that across different buildings there could be different rents.  There were a number of factors that impacted rent.

·       Anyone being housed could afford the property they were being placed in.  The business rule was that the service never charges rent above the rent and service charge equating to the local housing allowance.  That ensures it is recoverable through housing benefit.

·       The Housing Needs, Advice and Support service work with residents to understand the type of accommodation that they could move into and the vast majority of housing stock was charged at social rent levels.

Members' Questions

In response to Members' questions, officers clarified:

·       The reason the upper limit was set at £300k per property was to provide the maximum accommodation possible whilst looking at reasonable assets in the market.  The service had looked at the data already available to them from the current buyback programme which showed, in real terms, that the vast majority of purchases sat under £200k.

·       The service had a number of acquisition threads but would predominately be targeting the buyback properties, especially within blocks that PCC were already maintaining.  More widely they would consider anything that helped to meet the housing needs.

Members' Comments

Members considered this was great news for the city and for homeless people.

Cabinet Member Comments

Councillor Sanders noted this was the biggest single investment in homelessness the city had ever seen.  The key was to make sure that the savings were delivered and he stressed that 200 purchases was the minimum number of properties - the aim was that there would be more.  He welcomed the Governments investment in temporary accommodation but noted it wouldn’t touch the sides of the problem.

DECISION

The Cabinet Member:

1.    Approved Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Capital Expenditure of £31.28m, to deliver a minimum of 200 units, phased £15.64m in 2025/26 and £15.64m in 2026/27.

2.    Delegated authority to the Director of Housing, Neighbourhood and Building Services, in consultation with the Director of Finance & Resources (S151 Officer) to agree the use of HRA unsupported borrowing to support each of these acquisitions based on an individual Financial Appraisal of estimated income and expenditure.

3.    Noted that a General Fund contribution of up to £1.87m from the MTRS  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

Purpose of Report

The Council Housing Repairs & Maintenance Revenue Budget for 2025/26 was approved within the Council Housing Budget 2025/26 (including rent setting) report at the Housing and Tackling Homelessness Cabinet Member decision meeting on 22^nd January 2025.

The Council Housing Repairs and Maintenance Capital Budget (Major Repairs Dwellings) for 2025/26 was approved within the Portsmouth City Council - Budget & Council Tax 2025/26, Medium Term Budget Forecast 2026/27 to 2028/29 and Capital Strategy 2025/26 to 2034/35 report by the City Council on 25^th February 2025.  The HRA Assets (Non-Dwelling) Capital Budget was approved at the same meeting.

The purpose of this report is to inform Members of the spending proposed for the financial year 2025/26 for revenue and capital funded maintenance and improvement programmes for the City Council's retained housing stock (Portsmouth Homes) together with the HRA Assets (Non-Dwelling) capital scheme (including Housing IT Business Software) and to seek approval to incur expenditure in respect of the capital schemes and rolling programmes.

The report will also update the Cabinet Member on the year end position on the delivery of the 2024/25 Repairs & Maintenance programmes, the forecast spend against the approved budget, how the budget allocation supports improvement work linked to the Regulatory Judgement by the Regulator of Social Housing and pressures impacting the Repairs and Maintenance Service.

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the Cabinet Member for Housing and Tackling Homelessness:

1.    Notes the allocation of finance for the funding of the Revenue Budgets for repairs and maintenance of dwellings and non-dwellings listed in Appendix A.

2.    Approves the allocation of capital budgets listed in Appendix B and Appendix C for 2025/26, and the Director of Housing, Neighbourhood and Building Services be authorised to seek approval from the Director of Finance and Resources (Section 151 Officer) under Financial Rules, Section B11, to proceed with schemes within the sums allocated.

3.    Notes the Building Safety Remediation programme listed in Appendix D that includes works over future years and that approval for future years capital expenditure will be sought via the Council Housing Maintenance and Improvements (including non-dwelling) Budget Allocation report being brought in March of each year.

4.    Notes the allocation of funding to support improvement measures in relation to the Regulatory Judgement by the Regulator of Social Housing.

5.    Notes the year end position and progress of the 2024/25 Repairs and Maintenance budget plan and capital spend.

6.    Requests that a mid-year report is brought to provide an update as to in year revenue expenditure and progress of the HRA capital programme, including the Building Safety Remediation programme.

Adam Hardwick, Assistant Director, Buildings, and Merrick Trevaskis, IT Business Partner, presented the report, the purpose of which was to inform Members of the spending proposed for the financial year 2025/26 for revenue and capital funded maintenance and improvement programmes for the City Council's retained housing stock (Portsmouth Homes) together with the HRA Assets (Non-dwelling) capital scheme (including Housing IT Business Software) and to seek approval to incur expenditure in respect of the capital schemes and rolling programmes.

The report was also to update the Cabinet Member on the year end position on the delivery of the 2024/25 Repairs & Maintenance programmes, the forecast spends against the approved budget, how the budget allocation supports improvement work linked to the Regulator Judgement by the Regulator of Social Housing and pressures impacting the Repairs and Maintenance Service.

Alan Denford, Housing Finance Manager, drew attention to the non-dwelling capital schemes within Appendix C, page 46 and the commitments to spend money on Adventure Playground play equipment, Paulsgrove Community Centre and re-lining the splash parks where they had received a 25% contribution from the General Fund towards the works.

Resident Consortium

Greg Anderson commented that residents were happy with what was in the report and were keen to have repairs completed but would like to know when the contractors were coming to do the works.   Residents were understanding that a lot of the stock was very old and there was expensive work to be done.

Members' Questions

In response to Members' questions, officers clarified:

·       The Building Safety Regulator holding up work being done to improve the safety of the stock was a national issue. The process had changed as they were more vigorous in terms of what they were looking at.   When an application was submitted, it went to a number of specialist consultants to review the detail of the application and who then come back with questions, so the process takes longer than previously.

Cabinet Member Comments

Councillor Sanders noted the following:

·       The regulatory environment was increasingly tough which was understandable considering the Grenfell disaster.

·       The need to move from C3 to C2 within the Social Housing Regulator assessments.

·       The £1.2 million impact of the national insurance changes coming in April.

·       The age of the stock and assets and the Asset Management Strategy currently being compiled by the Service.

DECISION

The Cabinet Member:

1.    Noted the allocation of finance for the funding of the Revenue Budgets for repairs and maintenance of dwellings and non-dwellings listed in Appendix A.

2.    Approved the allocation of capital budgets listed in Appendix B and Appendix C for 2025/2026, and the Director of Housing, Neighbourhood and Building Services, be authorised to seek approval from the Director of Finance and Resources (Section 151 Officer) under Financial Rules, Section B11, to proceed with schemes within the sums allocated.

3.    Noted the Building Safety Remediation Programme listed in Appendix D that included works over future years and that approval for future years capital expenditure will be sought via the Council Housing Maintenance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.