Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Health and Community seeking approval to develop a joint funding agreement with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to fund future housing adaptation works in their property utilising Disabled Facility Grant (DFG) resources, and to provide financial assistance to RSLs to deal with their existing backlogs.

It was noted that, subject to statutory eligibility and means testing criteria, DFGs were a mandatory grant available to both owner occupiers and private and public sector tenants. Whilst RSL tenants had always had the legal right to apply for DFGs, the inadequate level of funding from Government for this area of work had meant that the Council had, for many years, had to focus its resources on private sector applicants, with RSLs endeavouring to fund housing adaptation works for their tenants. This position, whilst not replicated in all authorities, was not uncommon.

Although a small adaptations fund was historically available to RSLs from the Housing Corporation, it was never adequate to meet demand and, with other competing priorities such as investment needed to reach the decent homes standard, RSLs had struggled to provide necessary funding to match demand. Backlogs had arisen and it was currently estimated that there was backlog of over £1m adaptation works in the RSL stock in Halton.

A recent Government review of the DFG framework acknowledged the inconsistent approach amongst local authorities and RSLs to funding this type of work and, as a consequence, the small Housing Corporation Fund had now been rolled into the national DFG budget, which was distributed annually to local authorities. However, there was a funding shortfall which the Government’s review document failed to address.

Work had been ongoing for the past year to improve the effectiveness of Halton’s adaptations service by streamlining processes, identifying and eliminating duplication and system blockages, and by amalgamating the three teams of staff involved in the process. Some early outcomes and achievements were outlined for the Board’s information.

It was advised that, whilst this service for private sector clients had clearly improved, some RSL tenants were experiencing long waits. Council Officers had therefore been exploring with RSLs what could be done to improve the situation. Three potential options were outlined and it was recommended that option 3 – to develop a joint funding agreement with RSLs – be pursued as the most cost-effective way to deal with the problem, sitting well within developing Government guidance. In addition, as a result of forecasted underspend of £295,000 in the DFG budget, largely due to the shortage of suitably experienced contractors to undertake works, the opportunity for a one-off initiative to provide funding to the RSLs to deal with some of the oldest outstanding cases had been identified.

RESOLVED: That

(1)       the Board agree in principle to the development of a joint funding agreement as described in the report;

(2)       a further report be brought to the Board to agree the final joint funding agreement; and

(3)       up to £295,000 unspent DFG resources in 2007/08 be used to support RSLs to deal with their housing adaptations backlogs.