Agenda and minutes

The Panel Members, Councillors and officers in attendance introduced themselves.

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and other registrable and non-registrable interests they may have in relation to any item(s) of business on today’s agenda.

There were no disclosures at this meeting.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, 11 October 2022 as an accurate record.

The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, 11 October 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

Councillor Ponnuthurai stated that the Panel had not received a copy of the Capital Works Program that officers had agreed to circulate after the previous meeting.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Finance Manager to provide the Panel with a Recap of the Government Consultation, Proposed Rent & Service Charges Increase for 2023-24, Impact on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget for 2023-24 Onwards, Average Rents Increase £/per week, Average Service Charge Increase £/per week, Support Council Available to Tenants and the Next Steps.

The Finance Manager conducted a presentation to the Panel, which can be found via the following link:

https://civico.net/croydon/17179-Tenant-Leaseholder-Panel

In response to questions from members, officers informed the Committee that:

• The proposed 7% increase in rent was the maximum increase that was allowed following a directive from the government in September 2022.
• The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was comprised of all the money that had been collected from rent and service charges. The HRA was separate from the general fund which had been affected by the Councils financial pressures as it was ringfenced money for estates and Council housing.
• The cost-of-living crisis had affected the costs covered by the Council and the rent had been increased to cover rising costs of utilities.
• The Council had not been spending enough on maintenance for their housing stock. The money generated from the 7% rent increase would be invested in the maintenance of the Councils housing stock.
• Officers would report back to the Tenant and Leaseholder Panel about how the money from the rent increase would be spent.
• They would reach out to residents who would not benefit from the increase to see if there was a way for the Council to provide them with support.
• Officer had data which would enable them to target the correct residents and they would circulate leaflets and conduct visits to residents.
• The Council had bid for financial support from the government to improve the insulation in its housing stock.
• The 7% service charge increase was specifically for tenants, leaseholders would be charged for the services that they use and receive.
• Tenants service charges were part of a pooling system, the money received was pooled and allocated against the spend for the different services they were provided with. Leaseholders were charged specifically for the usage in the blocks that they lived in and there was a separate team which calculated the leaseholder charges.
• Most of the leaseholder charges were covered by their rent with the exception being the charges for electricity, gas and grounds maintenance.
• There had been an increase of £1.8 million on the Councils utilities bills which had been covered by the current year’s budget. The money from the 7% rent increase would be put towards future budgets to help cover these costs.
• The meeting had been convened to keep the Tenant and Leaseholder Panel informed and to ensure there was smooth communication between officers and residents.
• Significant sums of money would need to be invested in Councils housing stock over the next decade in order to bring those properties up to standard.
• Officers wanted to hear from residents about the maintenance work that they wanted to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26/22

To discuss any other business at the discretion of the Chair.

There was none.

Tuesday, 7 February 2023 at 6:30pm in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX.

It was confirmed that the next meeting would be held on 7 February 2023 at 6:30pm in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX.