Issue - decisions

(i)             to note the engagement undertaken over the summer period and thank the community for their participation and contributions to the online engagement and drop-in sessions. In addition, note the planned follow-on engagement with RAAC impacted owners and residents;

(ii)           to agree that the optimum option is the demolition and rebuild of homes on site and instruct the Chief Officer - Capital to proceed with the demolition aspect of this (Option 4a), and report back to the next appropriate meeting of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee  on the initial phasing of demolition and landscape details;

(iii)          to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Capital,  Chief Officer - Housing, and the Chief Officer - Finance, to assess the ‘building new homes’ option as alluded to in Option 4b with consideration towards  undertaking a detailed masterplanning exercise assuming the site is vacant to determine future redevelopment proposals. For the wider site give consideration to creation of appropriate greenspace, preferred housing mix, opportunities to extend tenure mix and provision for housing for varying need and report this to a future meeting of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee in 2025 (as early as possible);

(iv)          to approve the funding noted within the Financial Implications section of the recommendations and  instruct the Chief Officer - Capital, following consultation with the Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, and the Chief Officer - Procurement, to procure appropriate works and services, and enter into any contracts necessary for the delivery of the demolition, masterplanning and landscaping works  without the need for further approval from any other Committee of the Council subject to due diligence, consistency with the financial model and affordability and regular update on progress of project delivery to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee;

(v)           to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to look at a range of delivery options for new housing on the site including opportunities to work with partners to meet the masterplan aspirations, and the requirement of the Housing Revenue Accounts 30 year business plan; reporting this in as part (ii) above;

(vi)          to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Finance to take forward negotiations with private owners to acquire their properties voluntarily at Market Value, noting that this would be a valuation of the property at the current date and be on the same basis as the CPO process. In addition to Market Value the Council would be willing to meet reasonable legal and professional costs along with home loss and disturbance payments;

(vii)        to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Housing as part of the negotiations with private owners to assess the housing options available for each individual owner to identify any support that can be offered in rehoming;

(viii)       to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Governance to bring back a report to Council in late 2024/early 2025 on options available to the Council to compulsorily acquire private properties to assist the delivery of the agreed option where required;

(ix)          to instruct the Chief Officer - Housing to continue the re-homing process and report progress to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee on a regular basis, noting that there may be requirements to commence legal proceedings under the Scottish Tenancy Agreements, where tenants refused to move to alternative accommodation having received reasonable offers of alternative accommodation to ensure that tenant safety remains the Council’s primary objective;

(x)           to note that the Chief Officer - Housing ensured a continued offering of support to impacted individuals and families as they go through the rehoming process, and settle into their new homes and communities;

(xi)          to note that the Chief Officer - Housing and Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord would continue to engage with the Scottish Housing Regulator regarding progress with the delivery of the preferred option to ensure that any impact on our wider housing performance standards was taken into account, during regulation and consideration of the Council’s performance;

(xii)        to note that any private tenants (as well as private owners) can be added to the RAAC Impact housing  list as per the decision of the Urgent Business Committee held on 29 February 2024;

(xiii)       to note the approved £3m budget as reported at the Urgent Business Committee on 29 February 2024  including but not limited to, additional staffing costs, specialist consultant fees, contractors costs for access and works, rehoming costs, temporary accommodation, school transport, utilities connections and security costs for the wider site. To note the spend to date in relation to the re-homing programme as identified within paragraph 4.2;

(xiv)       to approve the virement of £4m within the HRA Capital Programme Budget as described in section 4 to set aside the initial funds needed to progress the approved works;

(xv)        to instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to include the financial consequences of the report within the 30 year business plan for the HRA, which was due to be reported in September 2024;

(xvi)       to note that ongoing dialogue with Scottish Government officials and Housing Minister regarding financial implications, including financial flexibilities, and future housing need, meant the Council may request that the Scottish Government consider a statutory dispensation to permit the Council certain flexibilities, and instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to request that dispensation, where required;

(xvii)     to note the Chief Officer - Finance would determine the accounting treatment for any expenditure incurred to address the RAAC situation, taking account of legislation, proper accounting practice, statutory guidance issued by Scottish Ministers, flexibilities approved by Scottish Ministers and, in the event of funding being made available to the Council, how that would be treated. To note that early engagement with external audit would take place as part of determining the accounting treatment to be applied;

(xviii)    to request that future reports include correspondence from the Scottish and UK Governments by way of background information; and

(xix)       to instruct the Chief Executive to formally advise both the UK and Scottish Government of the Council’s decision on the preferred option, the financial impact for the Council and private owners, and request a joint meeting with both the relevant UK and Scottish Government Ministers to discuss funding support for the short-term costs and longer-term housing development requirements.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to note the information contained within the report about the various options under consideration;

(ii)           to agree and approve that Option 1: Bearing Shelf Extension be ruled out as a viable remedial option (refer to paragraphs 3.37 - 3.39);

(iii)          to agree the addition of a ‘demolition and consideration of future housebuilding’ option for consideration by Council on 21 August 2024;

(iv)          to explain that 'demolition and consideration of future housebuilding’, alongside the demolition costs, would detail (a) the future potential housebuilding options; and (b) estimated building costs range;

(v)           to approve that engagement on the remaining options, was planned to be held during July 2024, which would be open to all Council tenants as required by the Housing Act 2001 (refer to Appendix B: Proposed Stakeholder Engagement);

(vi)          to note that it was proposed that private owners/tenants would be invited to participate in that engagement as noted in (v) above;

(vii)        to note that the information collated from the tenant engagement as intimated in (v) and (vi) above would be considered alongside the technical evaluation of options;

(viii)       to note that from a construction perspective, officers continued to reinforce the need for tenants to be rehomed irrespective of the outcome of the option consideration;

(ix)          to note that the intention was to come back with a recommended option to the next Council meeting which was scheduled to take place on 21 August 2024;

(x)           to note the reference to the expected levels of consequential costs because of carrying out remedial measures for the options which retained the existing properties, as intimated in Section 4;

(xi)          to note that intrusive surveys of RAAC impacted properties were still progressing as part of an ongoing mitigation strategy to allay any assurance concerns to existing Council tenants (refer to paragraph 3.6);

(xii)        to note that 138 of the properties identified with RAAC in the Balnagask area were privately owned (refer to Appendix A: Property Ownership and Housing Mix); and

(xiii)       to note with regard to Private or Registered Landlord properties, 40 buildings were not adjoining any Council owned property, 61 buildings were adjoined and there were 33 addresses which shared a building with the Council (refer to Appendix A: Property Ownership and Housing Mix).