Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

In terms of Section 1.3 of the Committee Remit and in accordance with Section 50(4)(b) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the Committee was advised that it had to determine (1) that the item was of an urgent nature; and (2) that the Committee required to consider the item and take decisions thereon.

The Convener advised that he believed the item to be urgent as a result of the information contained within the independent structural engineer reports, appended to the report, particularly with regard to risk assessment.

Councillor Malik moved as a procedural motion, seconded by Councillor Tissera:-

That the item was not of an urgent nature and did not require to be considered this day.

On a division, there voted:-  for the procedural motion  (3)  -  Councillors Kusznir, Malik and Tissera;  against the procedural motion  (4)  -  Convener; Vice Convener; and Councillors Greig and Radley.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)             to reject the procedural motion; and

(ii)           to therefore agree that the item was of an urgent nature and required to be considered this day as a result of the information contained within the independent structural engineer reports, appended to the report, particularly with regard to risk assessment.

The Committee was requested to determine that the item of business, which contained exempt information as described in Schedule 7(A) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, be taken in private.

The Committee resolved:-

in terms of Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of the item so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the classes described in paragraphs 3, 7 and 10 of Schedule 7A of the Act.

In accordance with Article 2 of the minute, the following item was considered with the press and public excluded

With reference to Article 13 of the minute of meeting of Council of 11 October 2023, the Committee had before it a joint report by the Director of Customer Services and the Director of Resources which provided an update on the works undertaken to identify the extent and impact of the presence of RAAC in the Balnagask area of the city and the recommended next steps in response.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee -

(a)           note the independent structural engineer reports appended to the report, that recommended a thorough re-evaluation of the occupancy condition for the properties identified with RAAC and instruct the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to begin engaging with Council tenants impacted to understand their individual needs to enable them to be rehomed through the implementation of a short-term management strategy to facilitate this;

(b)           approve budget virements within the Housing Capital budgets for 2024/25, as detailed within section 4 - Financial Implications - of the report, to cover all associated costs including but not limited to, additional staffing costs, specialist consultant fees, contractors costs for access and works, rehoming costs, temporary accommodation, school transport, utilities dis-connections/connections and security costs for the wider site;

(c)           in relation to (a) above, delegate authority to the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to rehome Council tenants residing at the RAAC identified properties to alternative housing with the following provisions:-

1)         Home Loss Payments and Disturbance Payments would be applicable to eligible tenants when they move permanently;

2)         Void properties across the city would initially be reserved where appropriate and considered for offer to tenants who currently reside at the identified properties;

3)         The creation of an additional specific ‘RAAC Impact’ housing list to ensure priority was provided to tenants residing at identified properties, allowing for urgent rehoming;

4)         All affected tenants would be placed on this list and assessed by need, individual building risk and failing this further prioritised by the length of their current tenancy;

5)         Allocation would be based on the tenant’s current housing need, where stock provision allowed, rather than their existing property type and size;

6)         All current applications for re-homing within the identified properties would be transferred onto the new ‘RAAC Impact’ housing list as noted within 3) above;

7)         That tenants would be provided with temporary accommodation if they no longer wished to remain in their property, as an interim arrangement, before re-homing;

(d)           instruct the Interim Chief Education Officer to provide school transport for pupils, on an interim basis, should a need arise through approval of (c) above;

(e)           instruct the Chief Officer - Capital to suspend any planned Housing Revenue Account (HRA) capital programme works at the affected Council properties in Balnagask;

(f)            instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord not to progress any new buy-back scheme applications within any RAAC affected properties, at this time using Corporate Landlord - Delegated Powers 6;

(g)           instruct the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.