Agenda item

With reference to article 3 of the minute of Council of 17 February 2025, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officers - Corporate Landlord, Finance and Housing, which advised that the Council had noted the alternative options proposed by the Torry RAAC Campaign Group Management Committee and instructed officers to explore the feasibility, benefits and risks associated with each option, alongside any other identified opportunities to support owners and report the findings to this Committee.  The report shared the outcomes of a Viability Assessment undertaken and made recommendations for consideration. 

The report also took account of the instruction to consider the landscaping options outlined in a previous report, more fully when reporting back to Committee on the viability of the alternative options presented by the Torry RAAC Campaign Group Management Committee (TRCG).

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)           thank the Torry RAAC Campaign Group Management Committee (TRCG) and UK RAAC Campaign Group for their positive engagement in the process of identifying alternative options for owners and for granting permission to share the note of engagement via Appendix A with the Committee;

(b)           note the contents of the Viability Assessment contained in Appendix B and that the purpose of the review was to determine if there are additional options which would meet the Council’s overall objectives;

(c)           note that Options 2, 3 and 4 in the Report are all identified by officers as being viable and worth investigating further with all owners;

(d)           note that TRCG have expressed a view that any option which involves owners contributing to costs or sharing equity in their property will not be acceptable to them;

(e)           note that if Option 3 is pursued there will require to be a commitment from all owners within any identified terraces of properties and that there will be a requirement to vacate properties timeously as part of the overall agreement in order to mitigate the health and safety risks; 

(f)             note the previous decisions that Voluntary Acquisition will be at Market Value (with additional supporting payments as previously agreed) and agree that all options should be equitable in so far as no single option will be more financially beneficial than any other to owners;  

(g)           instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to write to all homeowners to advise them of the alternative options presented, in keeping with the officer modelling within Appendix B, and ask homeowners, having considered the information, to formally identify by the end of June 2025 which option they would be willing to consider; and:

In relation to the roof on roof off proposal (Option 3):

1.    instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord,  in consultation with the Chief Officers of Finance, Housing and Capital, to thereafter review terraces on the site which would best lend themselves to meeting demand for the roof on roof off option as indicated by owners;

2.    instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to progress negotiations with owners to deliver the option as identified in the Viability Assessment and enter into legal agreements as required if there is sufficient interest to undertake this option in relation to at least one full terrace where all owners are in agreement;

3.    approve the necessary spend, using the funding solution identified for voluntary acquisition, to undertake works as identified in the Viability Assessment including procuring works, supplies and services as required in accordance with the Council’s Procurement Regulations;

4.    instruct the Chief Officer – Finance to explore the options in relation to loan, standard securities and shared equity mechanisms to support owners to meet a share of costs as outlined in the Viability Assessment in connection with their properties;

5.    instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to instruct the disposal of properties to owners as identified in the Viability Assessment, where this is considered appropriate;

          In relation to the excambion (house swap) option (Option 4):

6.    instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord and Chief Officer - Housing to identify Council houses that may be appropriate for excambion, prepare property information on these and circulate details to interested owners;

7.    instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord and Chief Officer - Governance to arrange any necessary works to properties under existing delegated powers and conclude transactions in relation to this Option in accordance with the terms contained within the Viability Assessment;

8.    approve the use of the existing funding solution for voluntary acquisition to fund these works, including making payment to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the loss of housing stock (all at Market Value);

9.    instruct the Chief Officer – Housing to keep the Scottish Housing Regulator advised of progress with this work;

(h)           instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to progress negotiations with owners, in consultation with the Chief Officer – Finance, and report back on progress to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee in August 2025 within the already scheduled report;

(i)             note that the first proposal within the UK RAAC Campaign Group Option is assessed as unviable, but that the remaining proposals have been built into the roof off/roof on proposal  from the TRCG;

(j)             note that works to masterplan the site have been ‘stepped down’ until July 2025 to ensure clarity over the options being taken forward in this report, as have works to progress site landscaping and demolition to avoid abortive costs; 

(k)           instruct the Chief Officers of Finance, Housing and Corporate Landlord to continue to pursue all available funding options to meet the needs of the Council and owners; and

(l)             instruct the Chief Officers of Finance, Housing and Corporate Landlord to discuss the content of this report formally with External Audit to confirm that they have no objections to the Value for Money of the recommendations within this report.

The Convener moved, seconded by the Vice Convener:-

That the Committee approve the recommendations contained in the report.

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

          That the Committee:-

1.    note the contents of the report and approve recommendations  2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.7 (subject to  the changes below), 2.8 and 2.10;

2.    agree that in respect of 2.5 of the recommendations, this matter was first brought to the attention of Elected Members back in February 2024;

3.    agree that the current proposals are likely to be unacceptable to the RAAC home owners, that this stalemate is likely to incur costs to the Council and  instruct the Chief Officer - Capital and Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to bring a paper to the next Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee meeting on the additional costs to the Council if the process of demolition is delayed by one year;

4.    approve recommendation 2.7 with the addition of instructing the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to engage with owners on the following proposed amended options:-

(a)  in relation to the house swap option, to include an additional discretionary financial contribution within the notional Voluntary acquisition package to reflect the impact of RAAC on property values (as per indicative figures in this report), where necessary to facilitate a viable exchange;

(b)  in relation to the roof-off roof-on option, to agree that this option should be fully funded by the Council as a discretionary intervention with no expectation of any contribution from owners to any costs; and

(c)  in relation to supporting owners to undertake RAAC remedial work, to agree that this should, where reasonable,  be fully funded by ACC,

Reporting the outcome of this engagement, along with the financial benefit if properties do not have to be demolished to the next appropriate committee,  to include consideration of financial and legal implications.

5.    agree the Council had in the past moved forward with the legislation and carried out works by taking charges against owners’ properties;

6.    approve recommendation 2.11 with the addition of noting that there had been no formal proposal to the Scottish Government to use the spare £20 million in the City Region Deal to resolve the RAAC crisis; and instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to bring a report to the next Finance and Resources Committee on the potential for preparing a bid to the Scottish Government for the use of any parts of the Housing Infrastructure Fund under the City Region Deal, fiscal flexibility, potential capital funds or other pots of money, to cover the potential costs of resolving the RAAC issue based on a maximum of offering homeowners the Market Value of their property with an additional payment to reflect the impact of RAAC on the value of their property, subject to agreement of a lawful funding mechanism;

7.    instruct the Interim Chief Officer - Governance to provide or obtain a legal opinion on whether the Council had any legal duty to disclose the presence of RAAC or problems associated with RAAC when the council houses were sold by the Council under Right to Buy; and

8.    instruct the Chief Executive to write to the First Minister calling for a full statutory public inquiry, under the Inquiries Act 2005.

On a division, there voted – for the motion (5) – the Convener, the Vice Convener and Councillors Bouse, Davidson and McLellan – for the amendment (4) – Councillors Cross, Graham, Malik and Watson.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)            to note that the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord, would issue a Service Update to members with details on offers accepted from homeowners; and

(ii)            to adopt the motion.