Agenda Item No:HASC/2007/18
Total Page:16
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LONDON BOROUGH OF CAMDEN WARDS: All REPORT TITLE: Investing in Camden’s Homes – Decent Homes Years 2 and 3, Integrated Reception Systems Years 2 to 4 (HASC/2009/11) REPORT OF: Director of Housing & Adult Social Care FOR SUBMISSION TO: DATE: HASC Scrutiny Committee 24 February 2009 Executive 25 February 2009 SUMMARY OF REPORT: In December 2007 the Executive approved the housing stock options appraisal and the Investing in Camden’s Homes strategy. Part of that strategy was to introduce the Investing in Camden’s Homes programme – focusing on decent homes, mechanical and electrical assets and health and safety works. This report seeks approval for schemes for years two and three of the Decent Homes programme and years two to four of the Integrated Reception System programme. LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 – ACCESS TO INFORMATION: No documents that require listing were used in the preparation of this report. RECOMMENDATIONS: HASC Scrutiny Committee is asked to note and provide comments on this report. Executive is asked to approve: • Years 2 and 3 of the Decent Homes programme • Years 2 to 4 of the Integrated Reception System programme Signed by Deputy Director, Housing & Adult Social Care: Date: ..............................................13 February 2009 1 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In December 2007 the Council’s Executive approved the housing stock options appraisal and the Investing in Camden’s Homes strategy. This strategy has 3 strands: • Introduce the Investing in Camden’s Homes programme – focusing on decent homes, mechanical and electrical and health and safety works • Explore estate regeneration options on selected estates • Sell a limited number of empty properties and secure £110m in capital receipts 1.2 Year one decent homes works are on-site and this report recommends schemes for inclusion in years two and three of the Decent Homes programme. 1.3 In March 2008 the Executive Member for Homes and Housing Strategy approved an approach to the installation on Integrated Reception Systems (IRS) prior to the digital switchover in 2012. Delivery of this programme is underway and this report recommends schemes for years two to four of the IRS programme. 2. RESOURCING THE PROGRAMME 2.1 To date £237.6m has been allocated to the Investing in Camden’s Homes programme. A further £75m in future capital resources will be added by future programme setting reports, bringing the total capital investment to £312.6m. This leaves £100m of investment need to be met by estate regeneration projects. Allocations Amount (£m) Decent Homes 155.3 Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) 32.1 Pride of Place Contribution – Raising the Standard, M&E 46.4 Health and Safety 3.8 Sub-total 237.6 Future Capital Resources 75 Total 312.6 Table 1 – Investing in Camden’s Homes – allocations to date 2.2 In March 2008, decent homes schemes to the value of £27m were approved by Executive. This report recommends decent homes schemes that have a total value of £112m, bringing the total value of approved schemes to £139m. 2.3 Table 2, below, sets out an expenditure profile for 2008/09 to 2010/11 which will be reviewed in detail by the Capital Delivery Team and partner contractors and any amendments incorporated into the capital programme first review. Expenditure 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 Total Decent Homes 1 £6,000,000 £56,250,000 £66,250,000 £128,500,000 Mechanical and Electrical £6,251,000 £15,000,000 £15,000,000 £36,251,000 H&S / Catch-up Repairs £950,000 £950,000 £950,000 £2,850,000 Total £13,201,000 £72,200,000 £82,200,000 £167,601,000 Table 2 – Proposed expenditure profile – Investing in Camden’s Homes 2.4 The full £139m for decent homes has not been cash-flowed across 2008/09 to 2010/11. This is to reduce the risk of accelerating decent homes expenditure too 1 £10.5m to be carried forward to 2011/12 2 quickly following the delayed start to year one. In particular the Capital Delivery Team will be looking to embed process improvements and lessons learnt following the commencement of year one schemes, taking into account resident and member feedback. 3. YEAR TWO AND THREE DECENT HOMES SCHEMES 3.1 As set out in the options appraisal over 47% of the Council’s stock failed the Government’s decent homes standard at 1 April 2007. By 2010 this rises to 70% if a programme of works is not targeted at current and future decent homes failures. 3.2 The Council submitted a set of targets to Government in June 2008 for the delivery of its decent homes programme. These targets are summarised in the table below: Decent Homes Failures Addressed Works Regen Sales Total % Fail % Change 2007/8 431 0 23 454 47.7% 3.5% 2008/9 1,750 0 90 1,840 46.0% 13.9% 2009/10 3,000 14 114 3,128 39.6% 7.7% 2010/11 3,223 386 114 3,723 36.5% 14.1% 2011/12 2,282 853 114 3,249 31.4% 44.5% 2012/13 2,028 750 17 2,795 17.4% 70.2% 2013/14 0 650 0 650 5.2% 54.9% 2014/15 0 530 0 530 2.3% 100.0% Total 12,283 3,183 449 15,915 - Table 3 – Decent Homes LAA Targets as at June 2008 3.3 As the table indicates, the Council is seeking to address 6,223 tenanted unit failures during 2009/10 and 2010/11 through the delivery of works to properties. This will be achieved through decent homes works, works to void properties, the remainder of the Raising the Standard programme and mechanical and electrical works. 3.4 Decent homes failures are pepper-potted across blocks, streets and estates. In the case of internal failures, these are extrapolated from a 10% sample. When building the detailed programme of works it is therefore necessary that we carry out property- by-property surveys. 3.5 This process can lead to a greater number of properties receiving works and the overall budget that has been allocated reflects this. In the case of external works the budget also has to include capital outlay to cover works to leasehold units. 3.6 In selecting year two and three schemes the following criteria were applied: • An approximately equal split between the North and South contract areas • Prioritisation of properties classed as “failing now” by the Savills database • Up to one-third of properties to require both internal and external works • Estates that could be considered for the second phase of estate regeneration, for example, those with potentially high investment needs or that could benefit from place shaping 3.7 The list of schemes in Appendix 1 meet these criteria and include: 3 • Up to 5,621 tenanted units to receive internal works • Up to 1,981 tenanted units to receive both internal and external works • Up to 825 leasehold units to receive external works 3.8 By including a greater proportion of properties that require internal and external works, the recommended year two and three schemes include a greater proportion of street properties than year one. Of the 8,427 properties included, 1,974 (23.4%) are street properties. 3.9 A number of properties that require internal works only will have received external works through the Raising the Standard programme. Carrying out internal works to these properties will ensure that they become fully decent homes compliant and key components have a substantial remaining life. Conversely many properties requiring both internal and external works, in particular street properties, could require a significant amount of work and information from property level surveys will need to be reviewed to ensure costs can be met. 3.10 It is anticipated that works will start on site in May 2009. The chronological ordering of schemes will be agreed with the appointed contractors, taking into account requirements such as leaseholder consultation and crossover with mechanical and electrical works. Once chronological ordering has been agreed, dates will be loaded onto the on-line database (www.camden.gov.uk/csp). Development of years 4 and 5 of the programme 3.11 Development work will commence on years four and five once the schemes in Appendix 1 have been approved. It is intended that a report will be submitted for Executive to consider in Spring 2010. This report will need to take account of a range of factors, including progress on generating resources through the sales programme and the outturn costs of delivering schemes in years one and two. 4. DEVELOPING THE CAMDEN STANDARD 4.1 Consultation on the investment strategy showed that tenants and leaseholders supported the development of an investment strategy that prioritised works to decent homes elements – e.g. wiring, windows, kitchens and bathrooms – and improvements to mechanical and electrical infrastructure such as lifts and district heating. 4.2 Tenants and leaseholders also indicated that a “repairing” approach would be acceptable for some elements, e.g. kitchens and bathrooms. The caveats to this being that any work should be of a high standard and the Council should avoid the false economy of repairing components beyond their useful life. 4 4.3 Workshops have explored this further with residents and suggest that the following approach to internal works is viable when considering what can be delivered within available budgets: Priority One Health and safety works and works to remedy disrepair Priority Two Key components – internal wiring, central heating boiler Priority Three If required – repair or replacement of kitchen, repairs to bathroom 4.4 Further to the strategic consultation outlined above, residents will be consulted at scheme level as the programme is delivered.