Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader, Councillor Rowena Hay, and Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Victoria Atherstone

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    the work and commitment of Cheltenham Borough Homes over the last twenty years in acknowledged by Cabinet;

2.    the new regulatory framework for social landlords and the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy is noted;

3.    the options for the future delivery of the Council’s Housing Services are noted, and the Chief Executive, Executive Director for Finance, Assets and Regeneration, the Corporate Director and Monitoring Officer, and the Housing Partnership Manager are authorised to undertake the required review to support the Leader in deciding to wind-up Cheltenham Borough Homes;

4.    the creation of a consultation framework is commissioned in order to develop a Tenant Offer which will provide tenants and leaseholders with the opportunity to provide their view on the proposed change in management, state their priorities in shaping the future housing service provision, ensure their continued involvement, and complement the new consumer standards;

5.    the consultation framework is acknowledged and the recommended tenant offer is subject to review by the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee upon their request;

6.    the Chief Executive is requested in consultation with the Leader and the Cabinet Member for Housing to develop a housing integration action plan;

7.    the Housing Strategy and Partnerships Manager is appointed as the Council’s Health and Safety lead, as detailed in Section 7 of this report. This will be subject to review following the winding up of Cheltenham Borough Homes.

The Leader introduced her report with the following statement:

‘I became a councillor over two decades ago because I wanted to make changes to improve things for all our residents.  Following the ravages of the pandemic and more latterly a cost of living crisis that has forced families to make unimaginable choices, I am more committed than ever to taking the right decisions to continue supporting our communities even when those decisions result in change.  But change is something we must embrace in order to keep delivering our priorities.  Back in 2003, it was the right thing to do to establish our ALMO (Arms’ Length Management Organisation).  Indeed, I was part of this council, when the then Labour government were offering financial incentives which we took advantage of to bring our homes up to the decent homes standard.  This funding stopped in 2016 but for twenty years, CBH has worked with CBC to deliver investment in existing stock, new housing, a financially resilient Housing Revenue Account, high tenant and leaseholder satisfaction, all of which we are rightly proud of and give our very sincere thanks to CBH for all they have done.

The reasons we need to look to wind up CBH as a company and bring the housing function back into the heart of CBC as one team are several this government is increasing the accountability on Local Authorities via legislation which we have to respond to in both the private and public sector housing that this council will be responsible for.

CBC has a medium term funding gap of £4m and we must look and re-look at every area of efficiency to protect services and support our communities.  He strengthening partnership work that was undertaken over the last two years has been successful.  However, since then we have seen a significant rise in interest rates now at an all-time 40-year high, a cost of living crisis, huge rises in materials for house building and massive energy cost hikes.

The significant reduction on ALMOs across the country (for a variety of reasons) also shows that it is those authorities who are retaining ALMOs who are increasingly the outliers, however a key priority for us has been and will remain is the tenants’ voice which we must strengthen and grow.

Ultimately, as Leader of the Council and Shareholder, along with my Cabinet colleagues, we have to try and act on behalf of all of our residents and businesses.  The financial pressures this council faces has, for the first time,  forced Cabinet to look at stopping or reducing services.  CBH customers are some of the most in need and vulnerable in our borough and they are more dependent on housing and council services than anyone else.  Our residents in wards like mine have also suffered more than any other group.  In this context, with this decision, I and my Cabinet have chosen to try and protect services, maintain customer satisfaction, and supercharge housing delivery by bringing CBC and CBH together  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5