Joint Rent Group - 2026 Minutes

Joint Rent Group

Thursday 22 January 2026, 10am via zoom

Attendees

Councillor Hazel Sorrell (Vice Housing Convener), Harry McCormack (tenant volunteer), Frances McGonagle (tenant volunteer), Stefan Kristmanns (Housing Development Co-ordinator), John Kerr (Homelessness & Housing Development Manager), Craig Wilson (Building Services Manager), Alan Young (Housing Asset & Investment Manager), Jonathan Stewart (HRA accountant) and Jane Mack (Snr Housing Development Officer –Tenant Participation)

Welcome and Apologies

Hazel welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies been received from Councillor Gurpreet Johal (Housing Convener), June Todd (tenant volunteer), Nicola Pettigrew (Housing Operations Manager) and David Lynch (Housing Operations Co-ordinator).

Updates on Outstanding Actions

Jane shared the outstanding actions on screen and went through the updates received.

JRG094 lock-up review - Review ongoing and waiting for repair plan. Garage site procedure was considered by Better Homes Board on 20/1/26 and lock-up policy going the HACC in February 2026. When the waiting list had last been updated not been confirmed yet. John clarified that the garage sites were different from the lock-ups. The garage site is just a plinth that gets rented and tenant needs to put up own garage. Being reviewed as number have been neglected and sites look poor. Current letting being paused until policy agreed and considering a proposal that in future structures should be subject to planning approval.

JRG095 Council Tax for ground floor MSF –double charge still in place, response from NDR team now been received and inspection visit been requested.

JRG098 Review of internal HRA charges – to be completed by end of March 2026 and Jonathan confirmed that it had commenced.

JRG102 kitchen programme pilot – update on pilot figures provided – similar to previous figures- 120 addresses - 33 pushed back (27.3%),27 added to the programme (22.5%), 55 no access (45.8%),1 not required (0.8%) and 4 no info yet. Craig confirmed 

that the Building Services Officers do the inspections. In terms of the ones that are pushed back it was confirmed that the tenant is told they are inspecting to see if kitchen needs replaced. If it doesn’t need replaced, tenant is told when it will be re-inspected again.

Hazel queried about the waiting list as she had been advised following a recent flood of her own home that there was a waiting list for kitchen renewals. Craig confirmed that if it needs replaced then will be added to the programme. Will need to get measured and nearer the time, an appointment will be arranged.

Alan clarified that if a renewal is a result of a repair issue then the BSO would check the property database to see when new kitchen or bathroom inspection is due and gauge whether can wait or if needs to be added to current programme.

Discussed impact of renewal dates as they are not set in stone and expected component lifecycles were always intended as a guide for potential renewal numbers. Some will be postponed, though this will have an impact on later years so reprofiling can cause issues.

John advised that are looking at investment plan and looking to refresh 30-year business plan. This includes carrying out an exercise of stock modelling to assess what is needed, is expected to take 6 to 8 months to fully complete and will inform an investment plan and rental strategy to deliver it. Will share outcome with WDTRO and JRG help set out next years’ rent setting.

In terms of kitchen pilot, Alan confirmed that they had concluded that it was useful and will continue with it and looking to include bathrooms too but need to assess if BSO’s have capacity. Inspections had shown that a reasonable amount of planned renewals didn’t need done so saved HRA resources. Will still spend the budget on properties that do need renewed.

JRG103-Explore opportunities and communications to reduce no access situations – Craig confirmed that they are doing an analysis of serial no accesses. Housing officers already support when there are issues with access – particularly for emergencies where there is flooding from a neighbour.

Update on CCTV programme and provision

Craig ran through the update provided - 347 cameras already fitted and working - overall 90% completed – full completion estimated by end of February 2026.   

Void budget and performance monitoring Q2

Jane shared Q3 (Oct-Dec) void update onscreen. Craig advised that void rent loss is over budget but still have lost less rent that last year so is still progress. Council Tax budget is over budget and still hoping that can get saving on ground floor properties in place to reduce that. Overall void numbers are lower (126) and at a much more manageable level so been able to reduce contractor spend and focus on in-house efficiencies.

Update on Capital Programme P9

Spreadsheet shared on screen – shows progress of each capital programme in terms of number of installations and budget spend. Alan confirmed that revised budgets are tracking well. No figures for smoke /fire detectors and Alan advised that there had been 400 addressed that still needed done and were added to the EICR programme. Stefan clarified that now only 25 addresses that don’t have the connected smoke alarms as specified by new legislation so these are being targeted.

Date of next meetings

Tenant JRG 19 February, 10am on zoom

Full JRG 5 March, 10am on zoom