Decision Maker: Council

Outcome: For Determination

Is Key Decision?: No

Is Callable In?: No

Date of Decision: December 3, 2025

Purpose:

Content: 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.