Issue - meetings

This report proposes to convert the maximum allowable 122 Temporary Accommodation (TA) units to Discounted Market Rent during the current year which, if agreed, and assuming that the remaining 242 TA units are also converted to Discounted Market Rent as soon as the contract allows, will reduce the projected deficit.  A sharing arrangement in respect of the increased value of the 158 Affordable Rent units at the end of the contract is expected to further reduce the deficit with any remaining deficit being met from the Council’s resources.

(i)         that it be noted that the revised Project Agreement was entered into in April 2015;

(ii)        that it be noted that the projected financial deficit at the end of the contract, without exercising the option to convert PFI units to alternative tenures, has increased due to the impact of external factors since the last report to Cabinet;

(iii)       that up to 122 units of Temporary Accommodation be converted to `Discounted Market Rent units, as set out in the report, and the Strategic Director Community Well-being, in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer and the Chief Legal Officer be delegated authority to issue to Brent Coefficient Limited a schedule setting out the units to be allocated as Discounted Market Rent units in accordance with the Project Agreement.

Councillor McLennan, Cabinet Member for Housing and Development, introduced the report stating that the Council’s Housing Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project provides 364 units of Temporary Accommodation (TA) for homeless households and 20 units of residential care accommodation through contractual arrangements running until 2028.

It was originally intended that a rising proportion of the TA units would be converted to Social Rented properties over the course of the contract (temporary to permanent conversions), in order to provide settled accommodation for at least 158 households by the end of the contract.

RESOLVED:

(i)         that it be noted that the revised Project Agreement was entered into in April 2015;

(ii)        that it be noted that the projected financial deficit at the end of the contract, without exercising the option to convert PFI units to alternative tenures, has increased due to the impact of external factors since the last report to Cabinet;

(iii)       that up to 122 units of Temporary Accommodation be converted to `Discounted Market Rent units, as set out in the report, and the Strategic Director Community Well-being, in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer and the Chief Legal Officer be delegated authority to issue to Brent Coefficient Limited a schedule setting out the units to be allocated as Discounted Market Rent units in accordance with the Project Agreement.