Agenda and decisions

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on the 28 January 2020.

Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Lead Member for Finance and Support Services and

Lead Member for Housing and Neighbourhoods.

Salford City Council - Record of Decision (CABINET)

I Paul Dennett, City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the Salford City Council constitution do hereby approve:

1.    An increase of 2.7% for rents in 2020/21 for housing stock owned by the City Council. The same level increase to be applied to garage rents and caravan site fees.

2.    Adjustments to service charges to reflect the actual cost of providing those services.

The reasons are that

In line with government rent setting methodology the rental increase is based upon the CPI inflation measure at September 2019 plus 1%. Additional rental income will help to meet the costs included within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business plan which must be balanced on a 30 year basis. The resulting rents are below Local Housing Allowance rates which are used to calculate entitlement to housing benefits.

Pendleton Together have reviewed the current charges and adjusted service charges to reflect the actual costs of services and will vary from block to block depending upon services received. The table below identifies the average rental charge combined with the average service charge per block to show the variation across blocks.

The council have in place a number of schemes to help people. BetterOff  Salford will help people to find out about benefit entitlement and provide help with applying online.  Staff at our gateways can also offer face-to-face support. The council administers a discretionary housing payment scheme which can provide short term support to alleviate hardship and Salford Assist can provide help with essential items to people in crisis.

Options considered and rejected were

Good practice requires a comparison of the costs of service provision with the income generated from service charges with the aim of ensuring that the charging policy is fair and equitable and that general rental income is not subsiding the cost of services to individual tenants.

Assessment of risk

Rent increase is based upon government formula of CPI plus 1% and service charges reflect actual costs. The rent increase reduces the financial risk of being unable to balance the long term HRA business plan.

Legal advice obtained.

The council is required to set a balanced HRA budget.

Financial advice obtained.

Paul Hutchings, Strategic Finance Manager, tel. no. 0161 793 2574

Procurement advice obtained.

Not applicable

Contact Officer

Andrew Leigh, Head of Housing tel no 0161 793 2155

Joanne Hardman, Chief Finance Officer tel. no. 0161 793 3156

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE ONLY

*           This decision was published on 12 February 2020                                              .

*           This  ...  view the full decision text for item 5.