Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member for Better Homes

With nearly 23,000 tenants and 9,000 leaseholders, Camden is the fourth largest local authority social landlord in London and the twelfth largest in England. In our role as landlord we have a crucial role in residents’ lives by providing high quality homes for tenants, ensuring our estates support people’s health, and supporting our communities. The Housing and Repairs Transformation programme and the Housing Investment Strategy are critical to fulfilling this role.

The national funding system for social housing is broken. Decisions taken by the previous government have resulted in £168m of lost rental income since 2016. At the same time cost pressures in the form of inflation, interest, fire & building safety, damp & mould and disrepair have mounted up. Together the lost rental income and cost pressures have created a severe financial challenge.

This report sets out how the Council intends to deliver on its strategic objectives for housing in the increasingly challenging financial climate that the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is operating in. It sets out a balanced budget and proposed levels of rent and service charges from 1 April 2025 for the financial year 2025/26, which includes savings as part of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) approved at Cabinet in January 2023 and some increases to those savings targets during 2025/26.

The report is coming to the Cabinet because the Council is required to set a balanced HRA budget for each year and set levels of rent and charges for the HRA.

Consideration was given to a report of the Cabinet Member for Better Homes and to an addendum published on the supplementary agenda.

In response to questions the Cabinet Member detailed some of the measures that were in place for supporting the most vulnerable tenants and leaseholders, such as for example the Council Tax Support Scheme and confirmed that Camden was seeking to work with government on improving social housing and reforming the funding regime.

The Chair commended officers for their efforts in such challenging circumstances.

RESOLVED –

THAT, having considered the views of the District Management Committees (Appendix E of the report), the Housing Scrutiny Committee and the results of the Equalities Impact Assessment (Appendix D of the report) and having had due regard to the obligations set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010:-

(i)           The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget for 2025/26 (Appendix A of the report) be approved to ensure a balanced HRA budget for 2025/26;

(ii)          Social housing rents be increased by 2.7% (CPI + 1%) from April 2025 (paragraph 3.4 of the report):

(iii)         Revised tenant service charges for Caretaking, CCTV, Communal Lighting, Communal Mechanical and Electrical Maintenance, Grounds Maintenance and Responsive Housing Patrol (paragraph 3.10 of the report) be approved;

(iv)         Revised service charges in the HRA hostels and supported housing of 2.7% increase and 3% increase for enhanced management charge for sheltered housing (paragraph 3.14 of the report) be approved;

(v)          The approach to the Heating Pool set out in paragraph 3.18-3.20 and Appendix B of the report, including to reduce heating scales by 35%, as detailed in Appendix B of the report, be approved;

(vi)         Temporary accommodation purchase programme 2 and 3 schemes (TAPP2 and TAPP3) rents (inclusive of service charges) be kept at 23/24 levels so that they remain affordable to homeless households (paragraph 3.7 of the report);

(vii)       Shared ownership rents be increased by RPI + 0.5% (3.2%) (paragraph 3.8 of the report);

(viii)      Resident garage rents be increased from £16/week to £18/week from 2025/26 in line with the Medium Term Financial Strategy savings strategy. (paragraph 3.15 of the report);

(ix)         Other fees and charges be increased by 3% (private garages, estate parking, sheds, cupboards, allotments, keys and fobs). (paragraph 3.17 and Appendix C of the report);

(x)          In relation to the proposals (with associated budget reductions) set out in section 3.22, authority be delegated to the relevant Director(s) to immediately implement proposals listed as Decision Category A; and

(xi)         Decisions i to x above be exempted from call in, subject to the agreement of the Chair of Housing Scrutiny Committee, in order to facilitate the notice of rent change being given to tenants within the necessary timescales.

For the reasons set out in the report.