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RAAC INVESTMENT
(i)            
to recognise the hard work being undertaken by Housing Officers to
deal with the challenge of the Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated
Concrete (RAAC) crisis, who helped to rehome over 350 tenants and
were still working with RAAC-impacted homeowners to help them with
their housing options;
(ii)          
to note that the Council had secured an additional £10million
Affordable Housing Supply Programme money, provided by the Scottish
Government, to support the Council to meet costs associated with
addressing RAAC affected properties in Balnagask;
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
(iii)         
to welcome the significant work being carried
out by Building Services who had turned around 2,536 void
properties in 2024/2025, the highest ever turnover of properties
achieved by the service;
(iv)         
to note that property turnover continued to be exceptionally high
with around 11% of over 23,000 properties being handed back each
year;
(v)          
to note the work that had been undertaken to create the Local
Housing Strategy, Housing Asset Plan and the Housing Emergency
Action Plan, all of which acknowledged the years of underinvestment
in our housing stock, and set aims and objectives around bringing
the Council’s empty properties back into use and reduce
homelessness in the city;
(vi)         
to note the 2024/25 Capital Programme delivered £58million of
investment in our existing properties and agree to increase this to
£63million of capital spend for 2026/27;
GENERAL
(vii)       
to support CoSLA and the Scottish Government’s Housing
Minister’s calls for the UK Government to write-off the
historic Housing Revenue Account debt to provide capacity for
supply of new housing;
(viii)      
to approve the budget as attached in Appendix 1, page 2 (Revenue)
and pages 27 to 29 (Capital) of the report, subject to the
following amendments:
·      
the setting of the weekly unrebated rents at an increase of 9.5%,
for municipal homes, to take effect from Monday 6 April 2026;
·      
add budget provision of £584,000 to the Repairs &
Maintenance line for cyclical and environmental improvements to be
undertaken at Summerhill and a plan developed for Tillydrone;
·      
the reduction in the capital borrowing requirement of
£25.655m by including the Additional Capital Grant, slippage
in the Capital Programme of 27% and, recognising the pause in the
scheme, a reduction to the Buy-backs budget of £1.46m;
(ix)         
to approve the level of miscellaneous rents and service charges,
including Heat with Rent and the General Fund Support Services
Charges as detailed in Appendix 1, pages 22 to 23, to take effect
from Monday 6 April 2026;
(x)          
to approve the permanent inclusion of a £1,000,000 Rent
Assistance Fund from financial year 2026/27;
(xi)         
to approve the move from a 48 week to a 52 week rent structure for
all rents with effect from 6 April 2025, which included
miscellaneous rents;
(xii)       
to delegate authority to the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord
following consultation with the Chief Officer - Finance, Chief
Officer - Capital, Chief Officer - Housing and Conveners of the
Communities, Housing and Public Protection and Finance and
Resources Committees to vire monies within the Housing Capital Plan
to support any works that may be required to review the
non-traditional housing stock and city centre multi storeys,
retrospectively reporting any virement to the next available
meeting of the Finance and Resources Committee as part of the
Quarterly Financial Performance reports;
(xiii)      
to instruct the Chief Officer - Capital, in consultation with Chief
Officer - Corporate Landlord, to carry
out previously identified planned cyclical and environmental
improvements to properties adjacent to the new Summerhill housing
development, in consultation with the Conveners of the Communities,
Housing and Public Protection Committee and  the Finance and Resources Committee, as a pilot;
and
(xiv)      
to instruct the Chief Officer - Capital, in consultation with the
Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord, to develop an improvement plan
of cyclical and environmental works in Tillydrone for properties
adjacent to the new Tillydrone housing development and report to
the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee on the
options and implications, by the end of September 2026.