This meeting was scheduled to include a presentation and discussion of Camden Council's Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget for 2025/26. The meeting was also scheduled to consider which Tenant and Resident Associations (TRAs) should be registered to allow tenants to participate in the District Management Committees.

HRA Budget 2025/26

The committee was provided with a copy of the draft HRA Budget for 2025/26, and invited to provide feedback on it. The draft budget identified a number of pressures on the budget that were likely to require rent and service charge increases.

Financial Pressures

The report identified a number of financial pressures on the HRA Budget. These included:

• Inflation, particularly in the construction industry.
• Increases to Employers National Insurance Contributions.
• Increased regulation of social housing, including the Fire Safety Act 2021, the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023.

The report noted that:

There has been limited funding announcements from central government on capital pressures arising from the Fire Safety Act, Building Safety Act 2022 or the need to retrofit stock and no readily available funding for revenue pressures.

Investment in Housing Stock

The report noted that the council had been investing heavily in its housing stock.

The Better Homes programme was established in 2013/14 and since then has delivered £629m in investment in our Council homes at an average of £57m per annum.

The report also noted that:

The Council is preparing an asset management strategy which will set out its investment priorities and programmes for the next 5 years.

Proposed Rent and Service Charge Increases

In order to meet the projected costs of the HRA in 2025/26, the report proposed a number of increases to rents and service charges.

Rent Increases

The report proposed to increase rents by the maximum amount permitted under the government's rent cap, which limits rent increases to CPI + 1%. CPI was 1.7% in September 2024, so the council proposed to increase rents by 2.7%.

The maximum permitted rent increase for 2025/26 would be 2.7%, which would generate £3.8m in income for the HRA, costing an average 2 bed property £3.84 extra per week.

Service Charge Increases

The report proposed to increase a number of service charges:

• Caretaking: 5%
• CCTV: 7%
• Communal M&E Maintenance: 5%
• Grounds Maintenance: 12%
• Responsive Housing Patrol: 7%
• Garage rents: £2 per week.

The report proposed to freeze the cost of communal lighting.

Heating Charges

The report noted that wholesale gas prices had fallen since their peak in 2022. It therefore proposed to reduce heating charges by 35%.

The proposal for heating scales from 2025/26 is a reduction of 35%. The impact on an A1 scale with 2 bedrooms is a reduction from £44.35/week to £28.83/week (£15.52/week less).

Savings

The report noted that the council was already in the process of making savings from its HRA budget. It proposed to make further savings in a number of areas:

• Increasing the income the council receives from its commercial properties.
• Reducing the number of empty council properties.
• Reviewing the services it provides to leaseholders.
• Improving its rent collection rates.

It was proposed to increase the savings targets for leaseholders by £0.3m, for bad debt provision by £0.1m, for commercial property income by £0.06m, and for property management by £0.14m.

Registration of Tenant and Resident Associations

The meeting was asked to note the TRAs that had successfully registered, and those whose registration had lapsed. The committee was provided with lists of registered and lapsed TRAs.

The meeting was informed that:

If a TRA wishes to register it must hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM), open to all members, once a year (with an independent observer in attendance). The minutes must be sent to the Tenant Participation Service together with a membership list and a completed registered form.