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Housing and Community Safety Policy and Scrutiny Committee
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19th April 2022 |
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Report of the Corporate Director of Economy and Place
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2021/22 Finance and Performance Monitor 3
Summary
1 This report provides details of the 2021-22 third quarter monitoring position for both finance and performance across Housing & Community Safety. The paper incorporates data to December 2021, which was reported to Executive on 7th February 2022.
Recommendations
2 The Committee is asked to note the financial and performance management position across Housing & Community Safety.
3 Reason: to ensure expenditure is kept within the approved budget and performance is effectively scrutinised.
Financial Monitor 3 2021-22
4 The table below provides a more detailed breakdown of the forecasts for services within Housing and Community Safety.
|
Service Area |
Expend Budget £’000’s |
Income Budget £’000 |
Net Budget £’000
|
Projected Variance £’000’s |
|
Building Maintenance |
14,327 |
-14,847 |
-520 |
0 |
|
Housing Options and Homelessness |
5,051 |
-3,508 |
1,543 |
0 |
|
Private Sector Housing |
1,153 |
-957 |
196 |
0 |
|
Community Safety |
792 |
-81 |
711 |
0 |
|
Housing and Com. Safety (Gen Fund) |
21,323 |
19,393 |
1,930 |
0 |
5 The Housing and Community Safety service are forecasting a nil variance at quarter 3 on general fund.
6 Housing Options and Homelessness includes the front line services provided to those in need of housing support, the provision of hostels at Peasholme and Howe Hill as well as homelessness initiatives. It is currently assumed the funding will be fully spent.
Housing Revenue Account
7 The Housing Revenue Account is forecasting a nil variance. The table below provides a more detailed breakdown along with commentary below.
|
Activity area |
2021/22 Net Budget |
Forecast 2021/22 |
Variance |
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£’000 |
£’000 |
£’000 |
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Repairs & Maintenance |
7,990 |
7,990 |
0 |
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General Management |
6,628 |
6,628 |
-70 |
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Special Services |
2,668 |
2,688 |
+70 |
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Other Expenditure |
18,438 |
17,980 |
-458 |
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Dwelling rents |
-31,731 |
-31,413 |
+222 |
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Non Dwelling Rents |
-429 |
-429 |
0 |
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Charges for Services |
-1,329 |
-1,289 |
+105 |
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Other Income |
-636 |
-556 |
+131 |
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Total |
1,599 |
1,599 |
+0 |
8 The Housing Revenue Account budget for 2021-22 was set as a net surplus of £741k. There were carry forwards of £2,819k agreed as part of the outturn report meaning the revised budget stands as a £1,599k deficit. Overall, the account continues to be financially strong and is forecasting a nil variance against this revised budget.
9 Repairs are forecasting to come in on budget this year as at quarter 3. The team continues to tackle the backlog of general repairs and the turnaround of voids is improving with the numbers reducing from 171 to 118 over the last two months following the appointment of two new contractors.
10 Special Services has a budget pressure of £70k from a combination of increasing repairs on lifts and the cost of holding the old hostel properties empty, this is mitigated by court cost expenditure in General Management, an underspend of £70k, due to the courts being closed during the pandemic.
11 The debt level is lower than forecast due to the delay in the Housing Delivery Programme and the interest rate is lower than that forecast in the business plan resulting in a projected underspend of £408k.
12 The Housing Team have reopened part of Crombie House pending this being sold, to assist the reduction of B&B costs, this rental income was not included in previous projections. In addition void numbers are reducing and the second-hand shared ownership scheme is nearing completion, in addition 6 new shared ownership properties have been sold on the Lowfield Green site. This has improved the forecast of dwelling rent by £96k since quarter 2.
13 The HRA working balance position as at 31st March 2021 was £28.8m. The HRA projected outturn position means the working balance will reduce to £27.2m at 31st March 2022. This compares to the balance forecast within the latest business plan of £26.8m.
14 The working balance has been increasing in order to start repaying the £121.5m debt that the HRA incurred as part of self financing in 2012. The current business plan assumes that reserves are set aside to enable to the debt to be repaid over the period 2023-24 to 2042-43.
Performance – Service Delivery
15 In spite of the many challenges that the organisation and City has faced over the last eighteen months, performance across the wider organisation, not just the Council plan indicators, has continued to remain high and continues to compare favourably when benchmarked against other areas with similar characteristics to York. Whilst Covid and the actions taken to tackle the global pandemic have in places affected performance in the short-term, the general pattern for data and information monitored by the Council is that levels of resident and customer satisfaction, timeliness and responsiveness, as well as various directorate and service based indicators, have remained positive.
16 The Executive for the Council Plan (2019-23) agreed a core set of strategic indicators to help monitor the council priorities and these provide the structure for performance updates in this report. The indicators have been grouped around the eight outcome areas included in the Council Plan. Some indicators are not measured on a quarterly basis and the DoT (Direction of Travel) is calculated on the latest three results whether they are annual or quarterly. It is likely that due to impacts of COVID, a number of the Council Plan indicators will see a significant change both in terms of their numbers and their direction of travel in future reporting periods. The majority of the performance measures within the Council Plan have a lag between the data being available, and the current reporting period and therefore impacts will not be immediately seen, and may occur over several years as new data becomes available.
17 Relevant performance items around the Council plan topics “Creating homes and World-class infrastructure” and “Safe communities and culture for all” are reported below, as historically other topics in the Council plan are reported to the other various scrutiny setups.
New Additional Homes Provided
18 Between April 2021 and September 2021 there were 160 net additional homes completed. This represents a lower level of completions than anticipated and can largely be attributed to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on working practices, labour force capacity and building material supply. The impact of the pandemic can be felt across all forms of housing and includes housing permissions. Of these additional homes:
· 99% were completed on housing sites;
· A total of 122 new build homes were completed whilst 1 home was demolished
· Changes of use to existing buildings for residential use and conversions to existing residential properties accounted for 24% of all homes completed
· Individual sites that saw the construction of five or less dwellings contributed an additional 35 homes (22%)
· Development sites including Germany Beck and the Former Lowfield School site all provided notable completions over the year.
Net Housing Consents
19 Between April 2021 and September 2021, there were 108 net housing consents. Of these consents, the main features were;
· 78.7% were granted on traditional housing sites;
· 21 senior living homes (19.4%) were approved at Beverley House in Clifton
· Sites granted approval for traditional housing included Duncombe Barracks, the Crescent and Heworth.
20 Compared to previous updates this represents a significant drop in the level of housing consents. However, a further 266 homes had the benefit of approval by Councillors through a resolution to grant planning permission subject to the completion of legal agreements and are likely to add to overall consent levels before the end of the full 12 month monitoring period. The sites and capacities included in this figure are:
· Plumbase – Waterloo House, Fawcett Street (83)
· Barnitts – 28A Colliergate (12)
· Cherry Tree House – 218 Fifth Avenue (48)
· Burnholme Community Hub – Mossdale Avenue (83)
21 Further, the former York City Football Club site in Bootham Crescent was approved for 93 new homes in August 2020 and is due to have a legal agreement signed off. It is anticipated that these will add to the end of year consents total.
Number of homeless households with dependent children in temporary accommodation
22 The number of homeless households with dependent children in temporary accommodation remains at a lower level to that seen in previous years. The latest available data shows that there were 15 households with dependent children in temporary accommodation at the end of Q1 2021-22 compared to 10 at the end of Q4 2020-21. It should be noted that these figures are snapshot figures. Q2 data will be available in February 2022.
Average number of days to re-let empty Council properties (excluding temporary accommodation)
23 The average number of days to re-let empty Council properties (excluding temporary accommodation) was 72 days at the end of Q3 2021-22. This is similar to the position at the end of April 2021, although an increase from 59 days at the end of Q1 2021-22.
24 The effects of the pandemic and Brexit continue to impact performance on re-letting council properties. Whilst dealing with pent up demand following national lockdowns, additional covid related challenges have slowed progress including new safety checks and staffing availability through both staff illness/isolation and vacancy controls. Lack of availability and increased costs of materials and 3rd party labour as a result of Brexit have further impeded the service. Brexit has also affected recruitment in some areas. An ‘Impacts of Brexit and Covid’ report which outlines the key issues and action plan to address them was submitted to the Housing & Community Safety Policy & Scrutiny Committee in October:
http://modgov.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=963&MId=13035
Energy efficiency – Average SAP rating for all Council Homes
25 The provisional average SAP rating for all Council homes in 2020-21 is 70.6. The Housing Delivery and Asset Management directorate are currently developing an energy efficiency and retrofit strategy for council homes, a process which includes work with carbon reduction analysts, Parity Projects, to model energy performance, and identify the most cost-effective route to net-zero. One key output of this work will be a detailed analysis of multiple sources of energy performance data, which will then be used to update our current energy performance data which is primarily based on our stock condition survey of 2019. The introduction of a new housing management IT system in Q4 of 2021-22 will also enable energy performance data to be more easily captured, analysed, and reported. The SAP data will inform a £2m retrofit programme improving the energy efficiency of council housing stock. The programme will deliver energy saving measures within our council housing stock, focusing specifically on improving building fabric insulation and installing renewable energy technologies. The result will be more comfortable homes, lower energy bills and less CO2 emissions.
Number of new affordable homes delivered in York
26 The number of new affordable homes delivered in York remains high, with 60 delivered during the first six months of 2021-22 (a reduction on the 83 delivered during the same period in 2020-21 but a large increase on the 33 delivered during the same period in 2019-20).
Superfast broadband availability/Average broadband download speed (Mbs)
27 In 2021-22, 95.53% of properties in York had access to superfast broadband, which compares to 94.13% in 2020-21. This increase can be attributed to the Council’s continued work with service providers to improve infrastructure.
28 The average broadband download speed in York in 2020-21 was 147.1Mb/s, which compares to 56.1 Mb/s in 2019-20. The national benchmark download speed is 68.92 Mb/s in 2020-21. This data is provided by an Ofcom panel of consumers so should be treated as an indication rather than actual figures. Data for 2021-22 will be available in June 2022.
% of Talkabout panel satisfied with their local area as a place to live
29 Results from the Q3 2021-22 Talkabout survey showed that 85% of the panel were satisfied with York as a place to live, a decrease from 88% in Q1 and slightly lower than recent years. 84% were satisfied with their local areawhich has been consistent throughout the year. A slight decline in satisfaction with the local area can be seen over recent years but York continues to perform well against the latest national figures of 79% (Community Life Survey 2020-21) and 80% (Local Government Association Poll October 2021).
All Crime per 1000 population
30 Overall crime levels in York for 2021-22 up until the end of November indicate that crime levels have risen slightly since 2020-21 and are back to pre-pandemic levels, although levels are remaining stable throughout the year to date. Data for Q3 will be available at the end of February 2022.
Number of Incidents of ASB within the city centre (Alcohol Restriction Zone)
31 Incidents of anti-social behaviour have remained stable during 2021-22 up until the end of September, with the Q2 figure of 340 slightly lower than the same period in 2020-21. The figure of 94 for November is lower than seen in previous years, and combined with October suggests Q3 will also be lower than previous years.
Annexes
32 All performance data (and approximately 1,000 further datasets) within this document is made available in machine-readable format through the Council’s open data platform at www.yorkopendata.org under the “performance scorecards” section.
Consultation
33 Not applicable.
Options
34 Not applicable.
Council Plan
35 The information and issues included in this report demonstrate progress on achieving the priorities set out in the Council Plan.
Implications
36 The implications are:
· Financial are contained throughout the main body of the report.
· Human Resources (HR) There are no HR implications related to the recommendations
· One Planet Council / Equalities Whilst there are no specific implications within this report, services undertaken by the council make due consideration of these implications as a matter of course.
· Legal There are no legal implications related to the recommendations
· Crime and Disorder There are no crime and disorder implications related to the recommendations
· Information Technology (IT) There are no IT implications related to the recommendations
· Property There are no property implications related to the recommendations
· Other There are no other implications related to the recommendations
Risk Management
37 An assessment of risks is completed as part of the annual budget setting exercise. These risks are managed effectively through regular reporting and corrective action being taken where necessary and appropriate.
Contact Details
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Authors: |
Chief Officer Responsible for the report: |
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Patrick LookerHead of Service Finance Ext 4161
Ian Cunningham Head of Business Intelligence Ext 5749 |
Neil FerrisCorporate Director of Place
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Report Approved |
x |
Date |
7th April 2022 |
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Wards Affected: All |
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For further information please contact the authors of the report |
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Glossary of Abbreviations used in the report:
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HRA |
Housing Revenue Account |
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SAP |
Standard Assessment Procedure |