Issue - meetings

F Jump presented the report and asked Committee for any questions.

Cllr England mentioned point 3.4 where additional funding for Covid 19 of £2.5m that the council has had and £1.3m income guarantee support. He notes that additional premises insurance charges relating to HRA premises, which has arisen due to significant weather events and wanted to highlight that this is a prime example of rising costs to the council that we will increasingly face due to the climate emergency and that underlines the need for us to act quickly to reduce those effects.

Cllr Mahmood questioned the £3.1m and with another lockdown planned, will this mean an increase in costs.  F Jump confirmed this figure was from September and is therefore pre-lockdown but there is the potential that the position will worsen.  F Jump added she would not want to speculate at the moment but once we have more information of the impact over the next few weeks it will be incorporated into the forecasts.

Cllr Mahmood asked about point 5.6 the repairs and maintenance budget, the £2.1m HRA and the pressures were less than the £2.1m ‘savings’ by not being able to do the work, will the pressures elsewhere be relieved by the money that hasn’t been spent this year and there will come a time when it will be spent, but there will be a new budget next year.  F Jump confirmed that the work will be move further down the line and will be incorporated into the budget for next year.  F Williamson advised that in terms of the expectation we are not expecting to go back to emergency repairs during this lockdown, we have had feedback from tenants and in the main they would prefer to operate business as usual.  With regards to pressures elsewhere we will be looking to maintain a balanced budget.

Cllr Mahmood queried the restrictions this time round and asked how it works going into other people’s houses to do the repair of the work.  F Williamson said that some works are going ahead this lockdown and that the guidance that has come out from the Construction Council and Central Government allows for workplace activities within residential properties, but obviously there is some heightened concern over any people who are in the clinically vulnerable groups, therefore we will be continuing with the triage questions that were used throughout the whole of this pandemic to ensure that there is no additional risk being introduced.

Cllr Mahmood asked for clarification on point 4.1 and 4.2 as it appears there’s an underspend on garages maintenance and a pressure of £65k on emergency Bed and Breakfast, there is also a pressure on garage income.  F Jump confirmed that 4.1 shows that there is an overall pressure on progress budgets within Housing and Communities, within that there is a separate pressure on emergency accommodation, so the net of those two give the overall pressure within premises.

Cllr Mahmood mentioned that there is no reduction in garages uptake,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77