Joint Rent Group - 2026 Minutes
Joint Rent Group
Thursday 6 August 2026, 10am via zoom
Attendees
Councillor Hazel Sorrell (Vice Housing Convener), Harry McCormack (tenant volunteer), Craig Wilson (Building Services Manager), John Kerr (Homelessness & Housing Development Manager), Nicola Pettigrew (Housing Operations Manager), Stefan Kristmanns (Housing Development Co-ordinator) and Jane Mack (Snr Housing Development Officer –Tenant Participation)
Welcome and Apologies
Apologies from Councillor Johal (Housing Convener), Alan Young (Housing Asset & Investment Manager), Jim McCarron (Finance Business Partner) Laura Ann Paton (HRA accountant), Frances McGonagle (tenant volunteer) and June Todd (tenant volunteer).
Jane also explained that Finance staff were rotating and new Finance Business Partner Lynsey Dickson would be attending future meetings but on holiday just now. Laura Ann Paton also moving back to be HRA accountant and she has attended JRG meetings in the past.
Updates on outstanding actions
Jane shared the outstanding actions on screen and went through the updates received.
JRG077 CCTV Project – signage been received and arrangements to be made for them to be put up. Permission for new HRA post been granted and being advertised in next couple of weeks.
JRG094 lock-up review – repair plan being progressed and some repairs being done. Nicola also confirmed that would be reletting lock-ups when they ready.
JRG095 Council Tax for ground floor MSF – costs to bring up to relet standard being appraised and decision made at next Better Homes Board.
JRG098 Review of internal HRA charges – £535k increase in Central Support Allocation to Housing but not seen the working assumptions of the calculations yet and will be shared with JRG members when available.
JRG103 - further clarification to be provided on the 26/27 Capital programme - responses given to specific queries regarding low bathroom renewals number, heating renewals mainly demand led when a boiler can’t be repaired or referral made. Roof numbers affected by owner engagement and also contractor capacity and contractor now committing more resources. Low window numbers been due to a resourcing issue and Building Services team working to improve output and numbers increased in June.
JRG104- 25/26 Capital programme - Bathroom overspend and EWI underspend. Kitchen, Bathrooms and showers all under one larger budget but split up for JRG reporting. Aim is to meet target numbers but if overall budget is underspent and get referrals or more crop up that need renewed then they can be done which meant 116 kitchens got done when target was 100.
EWI programme last year was underspent -255 properties done rather than target of 450 due to phases being more widespread now in location and also managing the HRA programme along with the EES ABS owner’s phases with the one contractor.
Void budget and performance monitoring Q1
Jane shared on screen the void budget figures for Q1(April-June).
Nicola advised that the Council Tax figure is slightly higher than target and relates to the Dalmuir ground floor flats which earlier confirmed a decision to be made on them soon. Also long term voids being focused on to help bring this cost down. New enhanced reports now available and get daily data so can closely monitor all voids. Average spend is £9600 and tenant satisfaction with the relet standard has gone up to 78.3%. 122 voids at moment, 8 void over 12 months and good joint working in place.
Average relet without any discounted days down from 63 to 53.5 days – this is main focus as relates directly to rent loss. Decants down to 18 and average days still high due to a number of long-term ones. Rent abatements reviewed daily and driving them down.
Craig advised that his teams been focusing on increasing productivity. Void depots have between 30-40 keys which are more manageable numbers and able to maintain work inhouse without expense of contractors. Site supervision been heightened to ensure productivity. Craig positive about the improvements made and them continuing.
Update on 26/27 Capital programme P3
Spreadsheet shared on screen - monitoring template been updated with figures for the first 3 months and Alan had added notes to explain where programmes are behind schedule.
Stefan explained the template layout. EWI projection been lowered and John was able to add that there had been grant funding for the Atholl Steel properties and they got new windows and doors but problems providing a historic building warrant meant the EWI couldn’t be done.
Heating systems – get replaced when boilers unrepairable so completions low now but could increase as year progresses.
Roofs - lag in spend. No tenant only blocks left so owner engagement delays renewals.
Windows – slightly behind in completions but still projecting completing full amount (440).
Date of next meetings
Tenant JRG – 13 August, 10am on zoom
Full JRG – 29 October, 10am on zoom
Joint Rent Group
Thursday 4 June 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), Scott McLelland ( Area Housing Co-ordinator-ASB), 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 Jane confirmed that apologies been received from Councillor Gurpreet Johal (Housing Convener), June Todd (tenant volunteer) and Nicola Pettigrew (Housing Operations Manager).
Updates on outstanding actions
Jane shared the outstanding actions on screen and went through the updates received.
JRG077 CCTV Project – Signage now been ordered and Scott confirmed that they have lost a post in the last round of savings and have been looking at overall service delivery. Team Leader and other operatives are General Services funded. Want to have a HRA operator at the CCTV monitoring room to focus on HRA cameras. New MSF cameras already being very effective and producing good evidence. New post being put up for recruitment approval and the operative will be solely focusing on HRA cameras. HRA operative will bolster existing monitoring and will also help provide stats and trend analysis. Realistic timescale will be 4/5 months for new post.
JRG094 lock-up review – Craig confirmed that repair plan being progressed and adhoc repairs being done too.
JRG095 Council Tax for ground floor MSF – Craig confirmed that Building Services are assessing the flats and costing up to bring them up to relet standard and will then consider how to proceed.
JRG098 Review of internal HRA charges –John advised that the review of housing’s Central Support Allocation has been completed – was started in 2024 and taken longer than anticipated. Housing not been involved in the review and outcome just notified on 7/4/26 and outcome is negative for the HRA. Financial papers going to Council on 17/6 will note an increase of £490k in Central support costs for 2025/26 to the HRA. Outcome has been challenged by Housing and have asked for working assumptions of the calculations. Outcome of the increase in Central support costs means that HRA reserve position is now below the prudential target (£1.122m - HRA prudential target is £1.160m) – reserve position would have been more positive if charges hadn’t increased. Chief Officers hasn’t agreed the CSA charge and discussions ongoing and if any positive changes, a recharge can still be made – if not changed then the unbudgeted cost will remain in 25/26. Due to holidays, discussions will not conclude until July but John will keep JRG informed of progress.
Harry voiced tenant disappointment at this negative outcome for the HRA and was concerned that the Chief Officer for housing wasn’t involved. John confirmed that Peter had offered for housing staff to be involved but it was declined and not thought to be necessary.
Agreed to keep on action sheet and progress and the working assumptions used to be shared when available. Jane to circulate Finance reports going to June Council when available.
JRG102 kitchen programme pilot – Decision to be made if want to continue this on action sheet and Alan confirmed that the pilot figures had been helpful for his team to target resources where needed. Pre-assessing is an additional resource but has been helping ensure that tenant money (HRA) is spent well. Do also get referrals from repairs so focus is still on getting as many components done as possible. Focus in 25/26 was also on spending and reducing any unnecessary borrowing costs.
Tenants to consider if they happy to monitor the Capital programme on the new template- is that enough?
Void budget and performance monitoring – year end figures
Jane shared the void budget year-end figures on screen and Craig went through the figures. Craig also advised that Building Services have been working with Housing Ops to reduce clear out costs and increase their own team productivity.
Void performance has improved over the year though some budgets still overspent and agreed to continue to monitor void performance.
Update on Capital programme 2025/26 year-end figures
Spreadsheet shared on screen – shows year-end position of each capital programme in terms of number of installations and budget spent. Alan advised that roofing is now outsourced to contractor who also does EWI and discussions ongoing to ensure they dedicate the necessary resources to the 2 programmes. Roof programme also delayed by owner involvement.
Capital programme 2026/27 monitoring
Monitoring template has been updated with the budget, target completions and average costs for each of the Capital programme. Only period 1 (April) been added and will continue to monitor as the year goes on.
Date of next meetings
Tenant JRG – 18 June, 10am on zoom
Full JRG – 6 August, 10am on zoom
Joint Rent Group
Thursday 5 March 2026, 10am via zoom
Attendees
Councillor Gurpreet Johal (Housing Convener), Harry McCormack (tenant volunteer), Frances McGonagle (tenant volunteer), June Todd (tenant volunteer), Stefan Kristmanns (Housing Development Co-ordinator), Nicola Pettigrew (Housing Operations Manager), John Kerr (Homelessness & Housing Development Manager), Craig Wilson (Building Services Manager), Alan Young (Housing Asset & Investment Manager) and Jane Mack (Snr Housing Development Officer –Tenant Participation).
Welcome and Apologies
Gurpreet welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies been received from Councillor Hazel Sorrell (Vice Housing Convener).
Gurpreet confirmed that the 6.7% rent increase had been agreed at Council meeting the previous night (4/3/26).
Update on Outstanding Actions
Jane shared the outstanding actions on screen and went through the updates received.
JRG077 CCTV Project – Installation completed. Nicola confirmed that signage wasn’t included as part of project but that Scott McLelland and Steven Williamson will review what is needed and take this forward and feedback to WDTRO. WDTRO would support as prominent signage as possible to increase deterrence effect.
Control room visit arranged for 16/03/26 and WDTRO will see the massive improvements carried out and will be able to get demonstration of the extent of the system.
Council have agreed a savings option which will potentially cut the CCTV staff and maybe the hours cameras are manned – Nicola advised they are currently looking at the implications of this and how best to minimise the impact and will feedback to WDTRO at a future meeting.
JRG094 lock-up review – review ongoing. When waiting list was last reviewed been able to be confirmed as key housing staff member off.
JRG095 Council Tax for ground floor MSF – being escalated to NDR manager due to lack of response and need for visit to be arranged.
JRG098 Review of internal HRA charges –is taking place and should be finished by end of March.
JRG102 kitchen programme pilot – Craig advised he will get the latest pilot inspection numbers to share. Have agreed that if a kitchen is inspected and reassigned to a future year, it won’t get inspected again and would just automatically get renewed.
Gurpreet asked for clarification if a tenant needs a new kitchen before the renewal date is that done? Craig confirmed that are ones that get pushed back but also ones that get added to the list - BSOs come across kitchens that need renewed ahead of the programme e.g. due to damage or flooding and have a proforma to complete to get added to the programme.
JRG103-Explore opportunities and communications to reduce no access situations – Craig confirmed that serial no accesses get escalated to HOs. Have been improving communication to reduce no accesses and when doing inspections, BSO are checking that contact details are correct. At moment BSOs have to return to office to make repair appointments but process being improved. Developing mobile working and will enable BSOs to make appointments with the tenant at the property – hopefully by end of summer. BSO scheduled visits are also now confirmed and use no access cards.
Making good progress with EICR with improved communication and more appointments are being kept. In particular, multi-trade repairs are being managed better to ensure get access and ensure productivity.
Void budget and performance monitoring Q2
Still in Q4 (Jan-March) so only Q3 performance available but Nicola gave an update on current position. 115 voids as of 5/3 - 45 terminations for February and potentially 63 in March. Teams are working closely together as target is to get voids down to 100 by end of March. Terminations have been slightly lower than last year. Roughly 90 lets a month so letting rate similar to last year.
Abatements at the end of February were £210k so should come under budget by end of March. Decant average also been reduced as a particularly long term decant been resolved.
Craig echoed that teams working well together and void turnaround has improved, productivity improved and focus has been on working efficiently and less work going to sub-contractors to keep costs lower and pleased with direction of travel.
Update on Capital programme P10
Spreadsheet shared on screen – shows progress of each capital programme in terms of number of installations and budget spend.
Alan confirmed that some programmes had been reduced mid-year but are tracking well. 3 main areas that are under budget are roofs. EWI and windows/doors. Windows/doors figures had been low but is now nearer the projected outcome figure of 408 – reduced from original target of 565.
EWI programme been affected by other projects as additional funding had become available for work on Atholl Steel properties and Government funding for HEEPS2 project. Render contractor now does roofs and increasing progress. Remaining roofs involve owners and that involves a protracted process.
Kitchen renewals are getting done (270 done) – inspect first so that do the ones most in need of renewal. Also a separate but related project being undertaken which will set out life cycle numbers and information being put together to help councillors and tenants know what the process is and will also use it in the Housing News. All council properties will have a number of renewals needed all at different times – kitchens, bathrooms, roofs etc. and need a process to manage that as efficiently as possible. Number of aspects can affect longevity but use an average and best practice information.
Date of next meetings
Tenant JRG - 2 April, 10am on zoom
Full JRG - 4 June, 10am on zoom
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