{meta} Agenda for City Issues Briefing on Wednesday, 14 February 2018, 10.00 am

Agenda and decisions

City Issues Briefing
Wednesday, 14 February 2018 10.00 am

Venue: Salford Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton

Contact: Email: Karen.lucas@salford.gov.uk 0161 793 3318 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

2.

Declarations of Interest

3.

Items for Decision - Part 1 - (open to the public)

3a

Pendleton Together Rent and Service Charges 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 118 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

 

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

 

  • An increase of 3.8% for rents in 2018/19 for housing stock owned by the City Council.  The same level increase to be applied to garage rents and caravan site fees.

 

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

 

The reasons are: The 3.8% increase in rental charges is based upon the CPIH inflation measure at September 2017 plus 1%, reflecting the government’s rent setting methodology.  Service charges have been adjusted to reflect the actual costs of providing the service.

 

The table below shows the average rental charge combined with the average service charges per block to show the average variation across blocks.

 

Average rent and service charge increase

 

Average Rent and Service Charge

Average Rent and Service Charge

Variation

Variation

 

2017/18

2018/19

 

 

 

£

£

£

%

 

 

 

 

 

High Rise

103.71

104.16

0.45

0.43

 

 

 

 

 

Low Rise

81.70

84.14

2.44

2.99

 

 

 

 

 

Sheltered

96.06

98.53

2.47

2.57

 

Work is ongoing to address fire safety issues within the high rise blocks.  The capital works on cladding and the potential installation of sprinklers will have no impact on rents.  In addition to the capital works, any costs associated with potential payment of disturbance allowances would need to be quantified as part of the ongoing budget process.

 

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 subsidising the cost of services to individual tenants.

 

Assessment of Risk:  Low

 

Source of funding: Rents and service charges are accounted for within the ring-fenced Housing Revenue Account.

 

Legal advice: The Council is required to set a balanced HRA budget

 

Financial advice: Report prepared by the finance team.

 

Contact Officer:  Paul Hutchings         Tel No: 0161 793 2574

 

*         This decision is not subject to consideration by another Lead member

*         The appropriate Scrutiny Committee to call-in the decision is the Growth and Prosperity Scrutiny Panel.

 

Signed: PAUL DENNETT, City Mayor

 

Dated: 14 February 2018

 

 

*         This decision was published on 14 February 2018

*         This decision will come in force at 4.00pm on 21 February 2018 unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.

 

4.

Any Other Business