Agenda and minutes

That the Chair be allowed to hold the meeting remotely.

RESOLVED

THAT the guidance on remote meetings be noted. 

Appendix A lists those Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations (TRAs), which have satisfactorily completed the registration process at the date of despatch of this agenda. It gives details of the representatives of those Associations to be co-opted onto the DMC, in accordance with the constitution, together with the names of the substitutes.

Appendix B lists those TRAs whose registrations have lapsed. If a TRA wishes to register it must hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM), open to all members, once a year (with an independent observer in attendance). The minutes must be sent to the Tenant Participation Team together with a membership list and a completed registered form.

RESOLVED –

THAT the ‘A’ and ‘B’ lists be noted.

An apology for absence was received from June Dodds (Peckwater TRA).

There were none.

There were no declarations.

There were no such notifications.

Report of the Director of Finance

This report summarises the financial position of the Housing Revenue Account and the draft recommendations on rent and service charges to be made to the Cabinet in January 2022.

The report also seeks the views of the DMCs on the draft recommendations.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Finance.

Emma Cardoso, Team Leader (HRA and Capital Projects) took the meeting through the report as part of a briefing session for all DMC representatives.

Meeting separately, Kentish Town DMC members considered the budget proposals for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

Consideration was given to the proposed rent increase.

Members of the DMC were not in favour of the rent increase, which they stated was too steep. Some DMC members felt a rent increase alongside an increase in service charges would mean that most people would be worse off. Furthermore, people were already faced with an increased cost of living, with some residents at risk of, or already facing, fuel poverty.

The meeting noted that those residents who worked and paid the full rent amount would suffer as it was believed to be unlikely that wages would increase in line with inflation.

Responding to questions Jo Adams (Landlord Services Manager), Gavin Haynes (Director of Property Management), and Charles Munyama (Business Advisor) provided the following information:

• It was proposed that rent be increased by Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus one. This figure was set in September of each year.
• The HRA holds financial reserves to enable it to manage unforeseen costs. If HRA budgets were overspent in a year, the difference would be taken out of reserves. Over the last few years, reserves had been reduced from £40 million to £20 million (at April 2021) mainly driven by rent reductions between 2015/16 and 2019/20, which reduced the income available to the HRA.
• If the HRA was to run out of reserves, it would have to seek additional funding from central government. This additional funding would come with conditions to ensure the Council reduced its spending and increased reserves over time, this would likely include cuts in services to tenants.
• Therefore, to protect services, the Council was keen to rebuild reserves to increase the financial resilience of the HRA.
• The Corporate and Democratic Core budget, as referenced in Appendix A, was mainly Housing Revenue Account (HRA) pension costs plus some budget for HRA’s contribution to central support costs, such as IT, Finance and HR. It also included Committee Services and senior management time in HRA related meetings. The HRA was a ringfenced account. However, it must contribute towards the overall cost of corporate functions.
• A detailed calculation was carried out at the end of the financial year, based on actual costs, that was reviewed by the HRA finance team to ensure it was a reasonable apportionment for HRA to receive.
• Residents were not contributing to costs such as Corporate and Democratic Core twice through service charges and council tax. The General Fund anticipated a contribution from the HRA, so their budgets are reduced by the income from the HRA. The Council Tax is therefore set on total costs less HRA contribution.
• 69.9% of tenants received either some housing benefit or universal credit.
• 25% of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Information paper from the Cabinet Member for Better Homes

Following a request from the DMCs during the December round of meetings, the Cabinet Member Better Homes has set out his views about the Housing Revenue Account budget setting for rent and service charge purposes for the following financial year.  

This paper has been already circulated to the DMC and TRA representatives separately but has been placed here for information purposes only.

The paper was not considered.

There was none.