Cabinet Member for Finance
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 19.3, immediately after any vote is taken at a budget decision meeting of the Council the names of Councillors who cast a vote for the decision or against the decision or who abstained from voting shall be recorded in the Minutes of that meeting.
At its meeting on 4 February 2021, Cabinet considered Paper BCa/20/33, the Housing Revenue Account. Paper BC/20/25 is unchanged from the Cabinet meeting and includes the necessary recommendations.
Proposed amendment from the Green Group also attached.
Minutes:
61.1 The Chair invited the Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Ward to introduce Paper BC/20/25.
61.2 Councillor Ward introduced the paper and provided a summary of the Housing Revenue Account Budget (HRA) and Four-Year Outlook report.
61.3 Councillor Ward PROPOSED Recommendations 3.1 to 3.7 as detailed in the report.
61.4 Councillor Jan Osborne thanked the Cabinet Member for Finance for his introduction to the report and stated that as Cabinet Member for Housing she was fortunate to see first-hand the work of the Housing Service each day. She also said that the income received by the HRA was invaluable to support tenants by ensuring the housing provided was safe, decent and somewhere tenants were proud to call home and she SECONDED Councillor Ward’s proposal.
61.5 Councillor Jamieson introduced his Amendment as detailed in the Agenda and PROPOSED the Amendment.
61.6 Councillor Lindsay SECONDED the Amendment and reserved his right to speak.
61.7 The Chair asked Councillor Ward if he accepted the Amendment, to which he replied that he did not.
61.8 Councillor Maybury commented that she agreed with the Amendment because to reduce the Council’s use of fossil fuels and install heat source pumps would be the way forward for the Council.
61.9 Councillor Jan Osborne stated that officers were currently working to develop a revised Housing Revenue Business Plan which would set out the ambitions and investments in the medium to long term and this was expected to be brought forward during the summer after a consultation period involving all Members. Therefore, there was no benefit to creating a specific reserve for the HRA housing stock.
61.10 Councillor McCraw stated that he would not be supporting the Amendment, as it was an ill-defined proposal unsupported by evidence.
61.11 Councillor Lindsay commented that a lot of work had gone into the Amendment and was offended by the assumption that no research had been undertaken. He said that he appreciated that the team were struggling to undertake an audit of the housing stock in relation to how much energy they were leaking. The process needed to be accelerated and officers needed the money to enable them to undertake this work.
Note: Councillor Holt Left the meeting at 8:43pm.
61.12 The Amendment as detailed in the Agenda was put to Members for voting.
By 9 votes for and 22 votes against, the Amendment was LOST.
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 19.3, the vote was recorded as follows:
For |
Against |
Abstain |
|
Clive Arthey |
|
Sue Ayres |
|
|
Melanie Barrett |
|
|
|
Peter Beer |
|
|
David Busby |
|
|
Sue Carpendale |
|
Trevor Cresswell |
|
|
|
Derek Davis |
|
|
Sian Dawson |
|
|
Mick Fraser |
|
Jane Gould |
|
|
|
Honor Grainger-Howard |
|
|
Kathryn Grandon |
|
Richard Hardacre |
|
|
|
John Hinton |
|
|
Bryn Hurren |
|
Leigh Jamieson |
|
|
Robert Lindsay |
|
|
|
Elisabeth Malvisi |
|
Margaret Maybury |
|
|
|
Alastair McCraw |
|
|
Mary McLaren |
|
|
Mark Newman |
|
|
Zac Norman |
|
|
John Nunn |
|
|
Adrian Osborne |
|
|
Jan Osborne |
|
Alison Owen |
|
|
|
Lee Parker |
|
|
Stephen Plumb |
|
|
John Ward |
|
TOTAL 9 |
TOTAL 22 |
|
61.12 Members returned to the original motion and the Chair invited questions.
61.13 Councillor Hinton queried that there was no proposed increase to garage charges and asked if it was known how many of the garages were used to store cars and what the impact would be if the charges for garages was increased.
61.14 Councillor Osborne replied that the take up for garages was low and increasing the charges might have an impact on future rental of garages. There was a project being undertaken to assess garage sites to see if any were suitable for redevelopment.
61.15 Councillor Dawson began the debate by stating that some garages were too small to store cars and that the Council should be investigating the compulsory purchase of garages to enable them to be developed.
61.16 Councillor Maybury agreed with Councillor Dawson’s comments and suggested that raising the charges would be a way of making garage sites available for development.
61.17 Councillor Osborne responded that she felt it would be unfair to increase garage charges to accommodate the Council’s need to free up the garages.
61.18 Councillor Owen suggested that there was a genuine need for parking spaces in some areas and perhaps improvements to the garages should be investigated rather than developing them.
61.19 Councillor Beer stated that he was not in favour of raising charges but would be in favour of investigating if mixed ownership blocks of garages could be improved to make parking arrangements more suitable.
61.20 Councillor Osborne agreed that there was a parking problem in the District, and this would be considered as part of the evolving parking strategy.
61.21 Councillor Ward fully endorsed Councillor Beer’s views regarding reducing the number of garages to free up space for more open parking.
61.22 Recommendations 3.1 to 3.7 were put to Members for voting and the vote was CARRIED.
By 24 votes for and 7 votes against
It was RESOLVED:-
1.1 That the HRA Budget proposals for 2021/22 and four-year outlook set out in the report be approved.
1.2 That the CPI + 1% increase of 1.5% in Council House rents, equivalent to an average rent increase of £1.35 a week be implemented.
1.3 That garage rents be kept at the same level as 2020/21.
1.4 That Sheltered Housing Service charges be increased by £0.69 per week to ensure recovery of the actual cost of service.
1.5 That Sheltered Housing utility charges be kept at the same level as 2020/21.
1.6 That the budgeted surplus of £127k be transferred to the Strategic Priorities reserve in 2021/22.
1.7 That in principle, Right to Buy (RTB) receipts should be retained to enable continued development and acquisition of new council dwellings.
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 19.3, the vote was recorded as follows:
For |
Against |
Abstain |
Clive Arthey |
|
|
Sue Ayres |
|
|
Melanie Barrett |
|
|
Peter Beer |
|
|
David Busby |
|
|
Sue Carpendale |
|
|
|
Trevor Cresswell |
|
Derek Davis |
|
|
Sian Dawson |
|
|
Mick Fraser |
|
|
|
Jane Gould |
|
Honor Grainger-Howard |
|
|
Kathryn Grandon |
|
|
|
Richard Hardacre |
|
John Hinton |
|
|
Bryn Hurren |
|
|
|
Leigh Jamieson |
|
|
Robert Lindsay |
|
Elisabeth Malvisi |
|
|
|
Margaret Maybury |
|
Alastair McCraw |
|
|
Mary McLaren |
|
|
Mark Newman |
|
|
Zac Newman |
|
|
John Nunn |
|
|
Adrian Osborne |
|
|
Jan Osborne |
|
|
|
Alison Owen |
|
Lee Parker |
|
|
Stephen Plumb |
|
|
John Ward |
|
|
TOTAL 24 |
TOTAL 7 |
|
Supporting documents: