Content

Salford City Council - Record of Decision (Cabinet)
 
I
Paul Dennett, City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained
within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve:
The allocation of the Homelessness
Prevention Grant and uplift in the grant.
The Reasons are:
The
grant funding is agreed and allocated annually from Government for
the beginning of the financial year, and used to fund the housing
services. This grant is therefore already allocated.
Options considered and rejected were:

Option
considered to delay the approval by Cabinet, this was not deemed to
be an appropriate option as the funding is already being used to
deliver statutory housing duties.
Assessment of Risk: Not applicable.
The source of funding is:
Government Homeless Prevention
Grant
Legal Advice
obtained:
Supplied by: Tony Hatton, Legal Services
The
Council proposes to allocate grant funding to support the continued
delivery of the Homelessness Prevention Programme to the
organisations set out in the report. Grant funding is a
different type of legal arrangement to a
services contract with different implications.
Contracts for goods and services (and works) are subject to public
procurement legislation, but grants are not contracts for provision
of services so are not subject to the procurement rules. Grants are
also not subject to VAT., whereas services contracts
are.
 
The
Council has successfully secured grant funding from MHCLG for the
Homelessness Prevention programme which it intends to flow down to
achieve the objectives set out in section 1 of the report and
deliver the services required.
 

As always, it
is important that the Council complies with the terms of the grant
funding agreement with MHCLGH, in particular ensuring that the
funding is only used for eligible expenditure and any timescales
around expenditure and reporting. If not, the Council may be at
risk of MHCLG seeking clawback of the funding for failure to
comply. 
Financial Advice obtained:
Supplied by:  Gemma Singleton, Senior
Accountant
·     
For 2025-2026 Salford City Council has been awarded
the sum of £2,708,451 in Homelessness Prevention Grant. This
is an increase of £1,283,821 from the 2024/25 allocation of
£1,424,630.
·     
Homeless Prevention Grant is ring-fenced and can
only be spent in accordance with grant conditions noted in the
report.
·     
There is sufficient grant to cover the costs of
£2,610,454. The costs are made up of Staffing/ TA costs
already committed from 2024/25 of £1,117,530. There is also a
requirement of £537,924 made up of pay awards and covering
staffing costs where previous funding has now ended. £300,000
allocated to Prevention and £655,000 to Temporary
Accommodation pressures. There is a unallocated balance of
£97,997 for which proposals are currently being worked
up.
 
Procurement Advice obtained: Not
applicable
HR Advice obtained:
Supplied by: Kate Story Strategic HR and OD Manager
16.05.25
A piece of work was undertaken
in 2024 to ensure stability in the staffing element of our Housing
Services.  This changing in funding
stream does not affect the nature of the contracts we have in
place.  We will however have to be aware
that should funding in it’s entirety be affected by reduction
in any grants in the future that this would impact on how we
deliver the services.  This could
potentially trigger consideration on how we deliver services which
could have an impact upon staff.  Should
a reduction in staff numbers be required formal consultation would
be required.  If staff are displaced
then the organisation has a redeployment policy to mitigate against
any redundancy situation however any redundancy would have a
financial impact too which is not likely to be covered by
grants.  
Climate Change Advice obtained:
Not applicable.
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process: Not
applicable.
Contact Officer:  Jane Anderson (Head of Housing
Options)                                   
Telephone number: 0161 793
2078

-    
This document records a key decision which was not
included in the Council’s Forward Plan and has been dealt
with under the emergency procedure.

-    
The decision is urgent and is not subject to
call-in, in accordance with the Decision Making Procedure
Rules.
 
 
 

Signed:         
Paul Dennett                                    
Dated:    27th May 2025
                       
City Mayor
 

For Democratic
Services use only

This decision was
published on  28.05.25.                                     

This decision is not
subject to call-in and will come in force with immediate
effect.