Agenda item

To receive the performance dashboards for quarter 2 providing performance information for both the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account.

The Group were presented with, and NOTED, two slides * showing performance information in the Mid Devon Housing (MDH) area under the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and the General Fund (GF).

The dashboard aimed to give an ‘at a glance’ understanding of how services were performing in terms of performance measures, finance and risk. Any measures that were also part of the Corporate Plan were listed in yellow text.

The indicators were presented with current performance, the annual target and a RAG (red/amber/green) rating to indicate whether or not the Council was on track to meet its target. Overall performance was presented in a pie chart which combined the RAG ratings for both the performance and the finance measures.

A summary of the performance position was presented as follows:

·       For the General Fund, the projected outturn was showing as amber due to a very small projected overspend on community alarm installations.

Housing Revenue Account:

·       The ‘MDH delivery of new social housing’ was showing as amber. 46 homes had been added to the Housing Revenue Account during the financial year so far, therefore, performance was just behind the target. The mid year target was 50. However the delivery with housing projects was not linear and it would be more suitable to fully consider performance at the year end.

·       ‘New MDH net zero properties’ was showing as red. 5 had been added to the housing stock in the year to date. However, the Housing Service was expecting a high number of completions in quarter four with 51 additional properties being added.

·       The housing stock occupancy rate was showing as amber and the rate had fallen below the target at the end of September 2025. This was mainly because the 28 flats at Saint George's Court were brought into the social housing stock on the 4th August 2025. These flats were currently going through the letting process. There were also 14 properties awaiting demolition elsewhere which affected the occupancy rate.

·       The projected outturn for the HRA was showing as red and this was largely due to an increased cost of contractors and higher than inflation increase in materials. It was also due to premises insurance. Officers were confident that the overspend could be managed over the remainder of the year and be reduced.

·       Projected tenant income was showing as amber. This was below budget due in part to the increased number of void properties. This was partially offset by the additional income from affordable properties.

·       The projected capital outturn was showing as red. This was driven mainly by 5 large projects. Slippage was due to various factors, including delays in plan, in obtaining planning permission or no bids being received on tenders and delays in contract signing.

Discussion took place regarding:

·       The ‘type of build’ listed in the ‘MDH Delivery of new Social Housing’ was confirmed as being more traditional build in the year to end of Q2. New ‘net-zero’ properties were more modular in design and were expected to be ready later in the year.

·       Projected Capital Outturn figures whilst lagging behind at the moment were predicted to catch up by the time the year end figures were presented.

·       The reasons why particular void properties took a while to be reoccupied were many and often complex. Sometimes properties were ‘end of life’ or needed complex survey’s undertaking due to the fabrication of the building, for example, ‘concrete cancer’ may be present. Also on occasions a property may appear void where a tenant might be in care meaning the property was empty but could not be classified as ‘void’ as it was still under tenancy. A ‘cost/benefit’ analysis needed to be undertaken as sometimes the cost of repair was too great due to the extensively poor condition of a building. In addition the tender process was not always straight forward and could be drawn out if no bidders came forward.

·       Whether there would be additional pressures on the team due to the introduction of Awab’s Law in terms of resources and available budget? It was explained that it was still very early days so the true impact was not yet known but the Council would need to comply and budgetary provision had been made at the start of the year. It was likely that there would need to be additional spend on contractors but this would be closely monitored. An initial spike of calls had been received but it was too early to say how this would level out in the near future. There had been communications with tenants providing advice on how to avoid opportunists and scammers seeking to target vulnerable tenants who may be in properties with damp and mould.

Note: * Slides previously circulated.