Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

Business Plan 2005/2006 to 2008/2009

This page contains a link to the Council’s second Housing Revenue Account Business Plan (see documents table below), which sets out our long term plans for providing high quality services and our interim investment strategy. We have a clear goal to promote healthy housing and improve the management and quality of all housing in the city.

Since the publication of our last Business Plan, Plymouth City Council has made a step change in its approach to strategic planning and the delivery of quality housing services with councillors, tenants and leaseholders at the centre of decision making. Improving customer satisfaction is a high priority. We have been focusing our resources on making a real difference to residents’ lives by improving the repairs service, void management, strengthening tenant involvement, improving rent collection, and tackling anti-social behaviour.

The Stonehouse regeneration scheme has been completed and good progress has been made in demolishing and refurbishing council stock as part of the large scale regeneration of Devonport. Up to date stock condition information has informed our new interim asset management strategy and given a clear picture of the investment needed to meet the decent homes target. Although the stock has generally been well maintained, it has lacked major capital investment. Approximately £110m is needed to bring the stock up to the decent homes standard by 2010. The Council estimates that it can fund up to £60m of decent homes work up to 2010 leaving a funding gap of £50m. Over a longer 30 year period a total of £807m is needed to improve and maintain the stock. This equates to £50,956 per dwelling or £1,687 per dwelling per annum. Our future investment priorities are to invest in heating, thermal insulation, modern kitchens and bathrooms and double glazed windows, and are closely aligned to the aspirations of tenants and the results of our stock condition survey.

Plymouth not only needs to fund decent homes work but also the substantial regeneration needs of many areas of its housing stock as part of the Council’s commitment to creating sustainable communities. Plymouth remains an area of high housing need with growing affordability problems and continuing poor private sector. The Structure Plan identifies the need for the city to find sufficient housing land to accommodate 10,000 new homes, and a further 4,500 in the sub-region of which 4,000 will be in the form of a new community in the South Hams. In spite of this level of new housing supply the Council’s housing needs survey predicts a continuing demand for council accommodation.

Tenant participation has gone from strength to strength at Plymouth and we now have a well established and extensive range of involvement opportunities and methods, including funding to an independent umbrella tenants’ federation (PETRA). Our Tenant Participation Compact and a Tenant Participation Action Plan were both developed in partnership with staff, tenants, the tenants federation and councillors. These strategies steer the way the service is delivered by the Tenant Participation Team and other Housing Service’s staff.

The Council is at a critical stage in reviewing the future management and maintenance of its council housing stock. We are now well advanced in our stock options appraisal and councillors have been working alongside tenants and leaseholders to find a financially viable and strategically acceptable solution. There are no easy answers to Plymouth’s stock options appraisal, but we are confident that we can find a deliverable solution by the Government’s deadline of the end of July 2005.

The Business Plan has clear strategic objectives which take account of national and regional priorities as well as our local strategic framework - the City Strategy. The Business Plan has also been shaped by our new ‘fit for purpose’ Housing Strategy, other relevant housing documents and the results of service reviews and consultation. This document is though only an interim position statement due to the imminent completion of the stock option appraisal. The Business Plan will be revisited later this year to fit in with our service planning and budget setting cycle, with a target to achieve fit for purpose status by March 2006.

Documents

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Housing Revenue Account - Business Plan 2005/2006 to 2008/2009. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 590KB

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