Agenda item

The Committee considered a report on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) final accounts for 2022-23. The HRA recorded all the income and expenditure associated with the provision and management of Council owned residential dwellings in the Borough. The requirement to maintain a HRA was set out in the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and the requirement to publish final accounts was set out in the Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2015.

The report had set out the actual level of revenue spending on day-to-day services provided to tenants and recorded in the HRA in 2022-23. The operating surplus for the HRA in 2022-23 had been £3.12 million less than the budgeted surplus of £10.89 million (Section 7.5) at £7.76 million.  The outturn allowed a contribution of £2.5 million to the reserve for future capital and a contribution of £5.26 million to the New Build reserve.  The HRA working balance at year-end remained at £2.5 million.

The Chief Finance Officer, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Finance and Property had usedtheir delegated authority to make the necessary transfers to reserves. This continued the policy adopted in previous years, whereby the year-end surplus was applied to each of the two reserves referred to above.

The HRA capital programme had budgeted expenditure of £53.9 million with an actual spend of £26.3 million.  There had been £24.5 million of major repairs estimated with an outturn of £20.3 million.  £27.05 million had been budgeted for new developments, where actual expenditure had been £6 million due to delays in the progression of some of the new schemes.

During the debate, the Committee made the following comments:

·      In response to a question, the interim Section 151 Officer confirmed that the figures in the report represented all the HRA expenditure both in terms of revenue and capital incurred in 2022-23, including the unbudgeted sums in relation to housing maintenance. There were, however, outstanding orders and other work that was ongoing, which were not included in those figures, but would be included in the current year's figures.

·      Whilst the Committee could be reassured that the figures represented what had actually been spent, it could not at this point be assured as to what had been delivered in terms of physical improvements to the housing stock as a consequence of that expenditure.

·      The Committee noted that the Monitoring Officer would be submitting a report to the Committee at its special meeting on 29 November outlining the governance around the housing maintenance issue.

·     In response to a question as to whether the 3% loss of rental income compared to estimates due to voids was within the normal range, or whether it was something about which the Committee should be concerned, officers indicated that the quarterly Performance Monitoring Report considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee included a KPI on void properties.

Having considered the report and noted that this matter would also be considered by the Executive at its meeting on 23 November, the Committee

RESOLVED: That the recommendation to the Executive contained in the report be supported, subject to the comments referred to above made by the Committee during its debate.

Reason:

To allow the Statutory Statement of Accounts to be finalised and subject to external audit prior to approval.