Council remains committed to capital housing programme despite COVID pandemic
Highland Council remains committed to carrying out its agreed Housing Revenue Account Capital Programme despite continuing pressures resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Progress against the mainstream HRA (Housing Revenue Account) programme continues to be impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions which suspended all capital works in Council housing until they were lifted in April this year.
The construction industry both in Highland and at national level is experiencing labour and material shortages and industry experts predict little improvement until at least the beginning of next year.
As well as rising material costs there is also reduced productivity from factories and mills, shortage of haulage drivers, port delays and construction demand fluctuations.
Chair of the Housing and Property Committee, Cllr Laurie Fraser, said: “These issues will result in ongoing delays, but Highland Council is determined to continue with its programme and contractual discussions are ongoing to accelerate works where possible.
“In particular, efforts are being made to prioritise certain works, such as heating replacements and adaptations and to minimise delays.”
It is anticipated that the Future mainstream HRA Capital Programme will deliver a minimum of 120 new completions within the current financial year, plus 32 one-off individual purchases.
Members at today’s meeting of the Housing and Property Committee approved the overall HRA Mainstream Capital Budget of £88.599m for 2022-2027.
The HRA Mainstream Capital Programme will see a phased investment to allow project management staff time to work with the construction industry to package projects within a workable timescale and achieve value for money.
Members agreed with the recommendation that the focus on the 2022/23 programme be on carrying out the most essential investment works, such as one-off installations like urgent heating replacements as identified by the local maintenance teams.
They also agreed that the programme for adaptations will remain the same across all 5 years of the plan, rather than varied across years to ensure that any works assessed by Occupational Therapy are progressed as quickly as possible.
Discussion over proposed works and locations will be scheduled with local Members in the coming weeks ahead of local committee approval of area programmes in early 2022.
Estimated investment on the new build programme has also been factored into the HRA projections. The table below details estimated spend per annum for each of the next 5 years. It also provides details of the projected funding source which will be reviewed annually:
ends