Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies had been received from Councillor Rodrigues (Portfolio Holder). There was a change of membership for this meeting with Councillor Duduta replacing Councillor Watkin.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2024 to be submitted and signed.

The minutes of the meeting of Finance Scrutiny Committee held on 6 March 2024 were signed.

The Chief Finance Officer delivered her presentation.

The Chair thanked the Chief Finance Officer for her presentation and invited the committee to ask questions

There were no questions but the Chief Finance Officer informed them that she would share the pack.

The Associate Director - Housing and Wellbeing introduced the presentation beforehanding over to her team who continued the presentation.

The Chair thanked the officers and invited the committee to comment and ask questions.

There was a question around the regulations in regard to the cost of housing benefit; it was noted that this was a central government decision.

There was discussion around early intervention to prevent homelessness and encouraging private renting.  The committee also discussed temporary accommodation, the shortfalls that existed and what was being done in regard to this.

There were questions around the ownership and management of the properties, with officers explaining that around 30 of the 100 temporary accommodation properties were directly owned by the council.

It was also mentioned the funding of a post with Citizens Advice (CA) had strengthened the relationship between the council and CA and had helped early action in preventing homelessness. 

Following questions from the committee more was explained about how the forecasting was done.

Resolved -

that the update is noted.

The Chief Financial Officer delivered her report.

The committee asked about the impact of the proposal to invest in additional temporary accommodation and affordable housing and how this would impact the forecast for temporary accommodation. 

The Chair proposed that the committee resolve to formally support the proposal to ringfence proceeds of sale from four properties on Rickmansworth Road to purchase more homes to reduce the temporary housing burden. This was agreed by the committee to go to Cabinet.

There were no further questions from the committee.

Resolved -

that the Finance Scrutiny Committee supports the below recommendations to Cabinet as set out in the report:

1.       That the committee has considered the 2023/24 revenue year end position as summarised at section 4.1 and detailed in Appendix 1 and to note the year end position.

2.       That the committee has considered the 2023/24 capital year end position as summarised at section 4.5 and shown in detail in Appendix 4.

3.       That the committee formally supports the proposal to ringfence proceeds of sale from four properties on Rickmansworth Road to purchase more homes to reduce the temporary housing burden.