Decision details

The Housing and Environmental Services Director gave a summary of the main issues arising from the review and stated that he had agreed to give a briefing to the press.

The operating deficit for 2004/05 was now calculated to be £435,000, the bulk of which had accumulated under the previous response repairs contract.  Serious errors had been made but there was no evidence of fraudulent behaviour on the part of the DLO staff or partner contractors.

The Housing Portfolio Holder thanked Councillors Edwards, Riley and Mason for acting as a sounding board for the report.

Given other pressures on the Housing Revenue Account, the DLO’s operating deficit needed to be reduced as quickly as possible; however given the DLO tender’s over ambitious assumptions, a deficit of £185,000 was included in the 2005/06 budget. The circumstances of the tendering exercise were discussed and it was noted that this had been on the basis of external legal advice.  For the future, the main issue was likely to be over response maintenance: efforts continued to move more repairs demand into planned maintenance work and a pilot was being tried to organise response work more efficiently.

Audit involvement was discussed.

Cabinet APPROVED the following courses of action:

Short term (to June 2005)

1.                  Extend the DLO recovery team’s life through to June to build on and deliver productivity improvements, including an extension of additional responsibility payments.

2.                  Increase the DLO allocated work packages up to £800,000 for 2005/06 in order to sustain the current arrangements while future options are being explored.

Medium term (to September 2005)

3.                  Commission a full assessment of the operational, legal and financial impacts of the future procurement options listed above, which takes account of the housing options appraisal outcome.

4.                  Proceed with the Shire Homes Technical Services reorganisation as far as it contributes towards improving DLO efficiency, while retaining the flexibility to adjust managerial arrangements to accommodate the future procurement options.

Long term (to March 2006)

5.                  Agree a preferred procurement option and an appropriate timetable for implementation.