Agenda item

Note: Meeting resumed at 19:14

Purpose of Report

To present the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan for 2023/28.

Proposals were also set out to undertake a thorough review of the HRA during the first half of 2023 with the goal of developing an exciting 30-year business plan setting out what we wanted to achieve over the next 30 years.

Executive was asked to approve the HRA Business Plan for 2023/24 and to support the development of an updated and wide-ranging 30-year business plan during 2023.

Decision

That the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan for 2023/24 be approved and the development of an updated 30-year business plan during 2023 be endorsed.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reasons for the Decision

With 7,794 council properties, the Council was required to maintain a ring-fenced HRA, covering the income and expenditure relating to the Council’s own housing stock. The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 specified the items that could be charged and credited to the HRA. Furthermore, the Council had a legal duty to ensure the HRA remained solvent.

The HRA Business Plan defined our income and expenditure plans for the delivery of council housing in Lincoln, The Plan and associated budgets were reviewed and monitored annually.

A one-year business plan was reviewed and approved in February 2022. In the normal course of events the 30-year plan would have been developed in 2023. However, this normal cycle had been disrupted by events beyond our control that would have significant effect on the viability of the business plan and its delivery in the short to medium term. For example, the war in Ukraine, the subsequent cost of living crisis and the uncertain political situation in the UK. The long-term plan needed to be fundamentally reviewed and updated.

Our goal was to refresh the business plan for the 2023/24 financial year and undertake a full strategic review during the first half of 2023, with the aim of having an updated HRA Business Plan that looked generationally at Lincoln’s wider housing and community needs, developed and approved for the start of the 2024/25 financial year.

Over the next thirty years we planned to invest a total of £220million modernising and improving our homes.

Energy efficiency was a key issue for our tenants. We continued to improve the thermal performance of our homes and our properties currently had an average SAP (energy efficiency) rating of 70 which was higher than the national average of 67.

Our target was to acquire 400 additional properties between 2020 to 2025. To date we had acquired a total of 217 additional properties and expected to acquire a further 52 properties in 2022/23. We were confident that we would achieve our target by 2025 and were working to acquire an additional 149 properties, 61 of which would be owned by the council.

The HRA Business Plan included sections on the changing business environment; coherence with the golden thread performance framework; involvement of residents; service delivery; and financial planning.

Note: Jo Walker, Assistant Director of Growth joined proceedings at this stage.