Agenda item

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Finance which provided information to enable the Council to approve a revenue and capital budget for 2021/22, including setting of the rents and other charges on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the financial year.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           approve the budget as attached in Appendix 1 (pages 5 to 6) of this report;

(b)           approve the setting of the weekly unrebated rents for municipal houses taking account of proposals outlined for a fixed rent policy, as detailed in Appendix 1, pages 5 to 6 of this report, to take effect from Monday 3 May 2021;

(c)           approve the level of revenue contribution to the Housing Capital budget for 2021/22 as well as note the provisional contribution for the subsequent four financial years as detailed in Appendix 1, pages 18 to 20;

(d)           approve the proposal to maintain the working balances at 10% to meet future contingencies as detailed in Appendix 1, (pages 5 to 6);

(e)           approve the level of miscellaneous rents and service charges, including Heat with Rent as detailed in Appendix 1, (pages 12 to 13), to take effect from Monday 3 May 2021;

(f)             approve, based on the rental increase of 4% the Base Capital Programme for the financial year 2021/22 Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20);

(g)           note the indicative level of the Base Capital Programme for the financial years 2022/23 to 2025/26 Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20);

(h)           approve as estimated expenditure in terms of Procurement Regulation  4.1.1, in order for work to commence on the Ongoing Capital Programme, the sums shown against each heading of the Housing Capital Expenditure budget for the financial year 2021/22 set out in Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20) without the need for separate Committee approval of each;

(i)             delegate authority to the Director of Resources, following consultation with the Chief Officer – Capital, Head of Commercial and Procurement and conveners of the Capital Programme Committee and the City Growth and Resources Committee, to approve business cases related to the expenditure approved in terms of recommendation 2.8 and to undertake or instruct appropriate procedures in accordance with the ACC Procurement Regulations to procure the works referred to in those business cases within the budgets allocated in Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20) for the capital programme for the financial year 2021/22 and to authorise the award contracts relating thereto; 

(j)             approve the gross indicative spend as shown in Appendix 1 (page 22) entitled ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’;

(k)           delegate authority to the Chief Officer – Capital, following consultation with the Head of Commercial and Procurement Services, to procure the necessary professional services and construction works referred to in Appendix 1 entitled ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’ without the need for further approval from any other committee of the Council subject to due diligence, consistency with the financial model and affordability;

(l)             delegate authority to the Chief Officer – Capital , following consultation with Chief Officer- Corporate Landlord and the Convener and Vice-Convener of City Growth and Resources, to vire between project budgets as indicated within the ongoing capital programme as referenced in 2.8 and the ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’ in so far as spend remains within the gross expenditure for the programme;

(m)         approve the transfer of land at Market Value from the General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account for the sites at the former Kaimhill Outdoor sports centre, at the appropriate time;

(n)           note that the projects listed in 2.08 above meets the initial requirement to build  2,000 new council houses and the capacity within the initial net budget; 

(o)           note that opportunities exist to continue with the programme on a number of sites and instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to continue development work on a range of sites as identified in the report as identified in 3.19 and allocate a further £10 million to advance these opportunities; 

(p)           note that the delivery and programme management of the new build project is being delivered with the use of frameworks for professional services contracts which includes, programme and project management, technical support and quality assurance all of which is being delivered with the normal fee scales for Housing Projects. These services will continue across the programme as new projects are identified;

(q)           approve £15m for the installation of Fire Suppression/Sprinkler systems in the new build programme as described in Appendix 1 (page 22); and

(r)            note that a second tranche procurement exercise is being progressed to seek out further opportunities for developer led proposals and report the outcome of this to a future meeting of City Growth and Resources Committee.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to approve the budget as attached at Appendix 1 (approved HRA budget available here);

(ii)           to agree to freeze the weekly unrebated rents for municipal houses with 0% added to current rents for the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23, as detailed in Appendix 1, to take effect from Monday 3 May 2021;

(iii)          to approve the level of revenue contribution to the Housing Capital budget for 2021/22 as well as note the provisional contribution for the subsequent four financial years as detailed in Appendix 1;

(iv)          to approve the proposal to maintain the working balances at 10% to meet future contingencies;

(v)           to approve no increase in the level of miscellaneous rents and service charges for the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23, including Heat with Rent as detailed in Appendix 1, to take effect from Monday 3 May 2021;

(vi)          to approve the Base Capital Programme for the financial year 2021/22 as attached at Appendix 2;

(vii)        to note the indicative level of the Base Capital Programme for the financial years 2022/23 to 2025/26 at Appendix 2;

(viii)       to approve as estimated expenditure in terms of Procurement Regulation 4.1.1, in order for work to commence on the Ongoing Capital Programme, the sums shown against each heading of the Housing Capital Expenditure budget for the financial year 2021/22 set out in Appendix 2 without the need for separate committee approval of each;

(ix)          to delegate authority to the Director of Resources, following consultation with the Chief Officer - Capital, Head of Commercial and Procurement and the Conveners of the Capital Programme Committee and the City Growth and Resources Committee, to approve business cases related to the expenditure approved in terms of (viii) above and to undertake or instruct appropriate procedures in accordance with the ACC Procurement Regulations to procure the works referred to in those business cases within the budgets allocated in Appendix 2 for the capital programme for the financial year 2021/22 and to authorise the award of contracts relating thereto;

(x)           to approve the gross indicative spend as shown in Appendix 2 entitled ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’;

(xi)          to delegate authority to the Chief Officer - Capital, following consultation with the Head of Commercial and Procurement, to procure the necessary professional services and construction works referred to in Appendix 2 entitled ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’ without the need for further approval from any other committee of the Council subject to due diligence, consistent with the financial model and affordability;

(xii)        to delegate authority to the Chief Officer - Capital, following consultation with the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord and the Convener and Vice Convener of the City Growth and Resources Committee, to vire between project budgets as indicated within the ongoing capital programme as referenced in (viii) and the ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’ in so far as spend remains within the gross expenditure for the programme;

(xiii)       to approve the transfer of land at Market Value from the General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account for the sites at the former Kaimhill Outdoor sports centre, at the appropriate time;

(xiv)       to note that the projects referred to in (x) above meet the initial requirement to build 2,000 new Council houses and the capacity within the initial net budget;

(xv)        to note that opportunities exist to continue with the programme on a number of sites and instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to continue development work on a range of sites as identified in the report in 3.19 and allocate a further £10million to advance these opportunities;

(xvi)       to note that the delivery and programme management of the new build project is being delivered with the use of frameworks for professional services contracts which includes programme and project management, technical support and quality assurance all of which is being delivered with the normal fee scales for Housing Projects. These services will continue across the programme as new projects are identified;

(xvii)     to approve £15m for the installation of Fire Suppression/Sprinkler systems in the new build programme as described in the report;

(xviii)    to note that a second tranche procurement exercise is being progressed to seek out further opportunities for developer led proposals and report the outcome of this to a future meeting of the City Growth and Resources Committee and to note that this will exceed the 2,000 houses if successful;

(xix)       to note that the Capital Programme includes over £10m of improvements in 2021/22 to maximise energy efficiency in our housing stock and to alleviate fuel poverty, by installing cavity wall insulation, combined heat and power plants and replacement of heating systems;

(xx)        to approve £250,000 from the Housing Capital Programme to undertake a full option appraisal on the city centre multi storey blocks to consider future development and investment opportunities; and

(xxi)       instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to report back the outcome from the option appraisal of (xx) above to the City Growth and Resources Committee no later than March 2022.