Purpose

To publish the draf budget proposals for
2024/25.

Decision

1)         To thank
Tenants’ and Leaseholders’ Forum, Housing Scrutiny
Commission and others who have commented on our draft Housing
Revenue Account budget.
 

2)         I am
grateful for the recognition from consultees of the challenging
financial position the multiple budget pressures create.
 
To recommend to
Council the following:
 
3)         Approve
the Housing Revenue and Capital budgets for 2024/25;
i)         
Approve rent changes for tenants for 2024/25 as follows:
-          
7.7% increase to core rent;
-          
7.7% increase to garage rent.
-          
5% increase for Hostel rent and service charges;
-          
5% increase for Gipsy and Traveller plot rent;

ii)         Approve
service charge changes for tenants and leaseholders for 2024/25 as
follows:

-          
amending the charges for District Heating as set out in section
4.6.3; including a 29% reduction in the variable charge for metered
heat and a 24% reduction in the fixed metered charges;
-          
reducing the charge for waylighting by 10.1%;
-          
applying increases to all other service charges of 6.7%.

iii)        Agree to
delegate to the City Mayor the authority to vary District Heating
service charges by the extent to which this represents a change to
the cost of providing those services.

iv)       
Note the equality impact assessment of the proposed revenue and
capital reductions required to present a balanced budget, at
Appendix I;

v)         Note
that the scheme of virement (included within the General Fund
Revenue Budget report which is also on your agenda) applies also to
the HRA budget with total expenditure and total income acting as
budget ceilings for this purpose;

vi)       
For those schemes designated immediate starts, delegate authority
to the lead director to commit expenditure, subject to the normal
requirements of contract procedure rules, rules concerning land
acquisition and finance procedure rules;

vii)       For
the purposes of finance procedure rules determine that service
resources shall consist of service revenue contributions; HRA
revenue contributions; and government grants/third party
contributions ringfenced for specific purposes;
viii)      As in previous years,
delegate to the City Mayor:

-          
Authority to increase any scheme in the programme, or add a new
scheme to the programme, subject to a maximum of £10m
corporate resources in each instance;

-          
Authority to reduce or delete any capital scheme, subject to a
maximum reduction of 20% of scheme value for “immediate
starts”; and

-          
Authority to transfer any “policy provision” to the
“immediate starts” category.

ix)       
Delegate to directors, in consultation with the relevant
deputy/assistant mayor, authority to incur expenditure up to a
maximum of £250k per scheme in respect of policy provisions
on design and other professional fees and preparatory studies, but
not any other type of expenditure;

x)         Note
that the capital strategy in the Capital Budget report also applies
also to the HRA.