Agenda item

With reference to Article 2 of the minute of its meeting of 14 December 2023, the Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Finance which presented an updated 30-year Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           approve the HRA Business Plan at Appendix A to the report;

(b)           agree the HRA Business Plan would be updated on an annual basis and reported to Council;

(c)           note the requirement for the Council to maintain HRA reserves for financial resilience and sustainability purposes and that the Plan builds in an annual surplus to support the value of HRA Reserves as time passes;

(d)           approve the terms of proposed consultation with tenants as detailed in paragraph 3.4 and instruct the Chief Officer - Housing to consult with the tenants, and note that the Chief Officer - Finance would include the results as part of the HRA Budget 2025/26 presented to the Council on 11 December 2024; and

(e)           note that the Council would receive reports on the Local Housing Strategy and the Housing Asset Management Plan in 2025 and these would inform future updates to the HRA Business Plan.

Councillor Radley moved, seconded by Councillor Henrickson:-

That the Council approve the recommendations contained within the report.

Councillor Malik moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Graham:-

That the Council - 

(1)       note the HRA Business Plan at Appendix A to this report;

(2)       agree the HRA Business Plan as presented highlights the failures of this SNP administration and the Scottish Government who continue to cut the budget for housing projects;

(3)       agree the previous administration brought forward plans to deliver 2,000 council homes, the first thing the SNP did in power was to delay much needed Council homes at Craighill and Kincorth;

(4)       agree that improvements to the management of void properties may reduce the need to consider increasing rent by 10%;

(5)       approve the terms of proposed consultation with tenants as detailed in paragraph 3.4 of the report and instruct the Chief Officer - Housing to consult with the tenants, and note that the Chief Officer - Finance will include the results as part of the HRA Budget 2025/26 presented to the Council on 5 March 2025;

(6)       instruct the Chief Officer - Housing to consult with communities and individuals with lived experience of the housing emergency, and internal and external partners, on the HRA Business Plan;

(7)       note that the Council will receive reports on the Local Housing Strategy and the Housing Asset Management Plan in 2025 and these will inform future updates to the HRA Business Plan; and

(8)       instruct the Chief Officers - Housing and Corporate Landlord, in consultation with the Chief Officer - Finance, to incorporate into the next 30 Year HRA Business Plan, which will be reported to Council during 2025/26, the indicative costs and financial implications on tenants’ rents of building a further 1,000 Council homes, and agreeing that Labour will participate in a cross party working group on this matter as appropriate.

On a division, there voted:-

For the motion   (27)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Bouse, Brooks, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Cross, Davidson, Fairfull, Greig, Henrickson, Hutchison, Kusznir, MacGregor, McLellan, McRae, Massey, Nicoll, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

For the amendment  (12)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Crockett, Graham, Grant, Lawrence, Macdonald, Malik, Tissera, Thomson and Watson. 

Absent from the division  (3)  -  Councillors Boulton, Farquhar and Mennie.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to adopt the motion; and

(ii)           to note that the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord would circulate information with regard to the breakdown of void properties re-let to different categories of people.