Issue - meetings

Resolved to recommend:

l) reduce dwelling rents for non-sheltered housing units by 1%, and increase rents for sheltered housing units by CPI plus 1%, resulting in an average rent of £105.52 per week (based on 52 weeks)

m) the updated HRA estimate for 2016/17 as shown in Supplementary Appendix F to the Extraordinary Cabinet budget report.

Resolved to recommend:

l) reduce dwelling rents for non-sheltered housing units by 1%, and increase rents for sheltered housing units by CPI plus 1%, resulting in an average rent of £105.52 per week (based on 52 weeks)

m) the updated HRA estimate for 2016/17 as shown in Supplementary Appendix F to the Extraordinary Cabinet budget report.

Reason for Urgent Cabinet

Following updated information on the progress of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill through Parliament, the above updated recommendations are recommended to Cabinet. Each recommendation listed above supersedes the recommendations of the same letter within the original Cabinet Report (9 February 2016, Agenda Item 13).

Advice

The Leader of the Council was aware that the legislation to reduce housing rent by 1% was not yet law, however councillors needed to adhere to it. It was noted that sheltered housing was not included.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing noted that they had not received clarification yet if this was CPI or RPI and therefore asked if the council could revert back to the previous target rate approach next year.

The Corporate Director of Finance & Operations explained that the council could revert back to previous ways of calculating the rate, however it would prove to be very expensive for the council to do this during the financial year and therefore any change could be postponed until the next financial year.

Voting

None.