Housing Solicitors

Cambridge City Council has published proposals to review the city’s housing services, as part of a change programme to further improve efficiency and target resources at those in greatest need, as well as making provision for savings.

The council has published two reports published – the Housing Revenue Account Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and the Housing Transformation Programme Update – which set out how the council will need to make further changes to the way it delivers housing services.

The council says it is already focused on making its services more efficient – for example, by reducing the number of days it takes to carry out any necessary repairs and health and safety works to council homes.

The time taken to re-let a standard property to a new tenant was cut from 34 days in 2015 to 26 days in the first quarter of this financial year – and the council says it has plans to improve this further.

If councillors approve proposals in the reports, the programme could be extended to include carrying out a review of management and staffing levels,
reviewing expenditure in respect of day-to-day repairs and repairs undertaken when properties are handed back to the council – and reviewing expenditure on disabled adaptations.

The council is also hoping to review the planned maintenance programme to council homes, as well as assessing options for sharing housing services with other councils.

The reports propose making provision for £1million of savings from the council’s housing service for 2017-2018, with up to a further £1m in 2018-2019. Agreement to a devolution deal would see an additional £70m handed to the council by government, which would be used to build new council homes.

The council says the proposals are being made against a backdrop of uncertainty in national housing policy, with the government yet to confirm its requirements of councils on the sale of high-value assets and rent levels for households earning more than £31k per year.

In 2015, the government told councils to cut housing rents by 1% annually for four years – and 2017-2018 will be the second year of reductions, subject to any further instructions from government. The effect of this on the council over the four years will be to reduce income from rents by £14.88m by 2019-2020.

Cambridge City Council’s Executive Councillor for Housing, Councillor Kevin Price, said:

“Given the pressures on the council’s finances, it’s important that we find ways of becoming even more efficient – this means looking at how we do things now and seeing whether there are different ways of providing services that help us to target those people who are in greatest need of our help.

“We will build as many council homes as we can, but the big numbers that the city urgently needs will only come if a devolution deal can be agreed with government – something that requires agreement by a number of councils, as well as Whitehall.

“We need to be able to adapt quickly to changes in national housing policy that could affect our budgets further – and taking the right steps now will put us in a better position to do that.

“Our priority remains minimising and mitigating the impact of any changes in our services on tenants, particularly the most vulnerable people.”

Council tenants would be consulted on any changes that directly affect them. A further financial report is to be presented to Housing Scrutiny Committee in January.

Cllr Price will decide whether to approve the recommendations in both reports at Housing Scrutiny Committee on 22 September.

Duncan Lewis Housing Solicitors

Duncan Lewis housing solicitors can advise on a wide range of housing law, including advising developers and self builders on planning permissions and planning appeals.

There are Duncan Lewis offices across England and Wales and our housing team is also able to advise on:

• Debt management for homeowners
• Disrepair of rented property
• Housing Benefit
• Housing possession
• Landlords’ obligations
• Landlord and tenant disputes
• Lease extensions
• Local Authority housing
• Mortgage repossession
• Notice to quit
• Nuisance neighbours
• Right to Buy
• Right to Rent checks
• Tenancy agreements
• Unlawful eviction.

For expert legal advice on housing law, call Duncan Lewis housing solicitors on 0333 772 0409.