Issue - meetings

Portfolio Holder – Councillor Alasdair Ross

This report recommends the approval and adoption of the new Income Management Strategy to ensure it guides the service to deliver consistent, fair, and compliant services relating to the collection of rent in addition to a strategic approach for sustainment of tenancies.

76.1.     Councillor Ross introduced the report, highlighting the excellent work of the Income Team within Tenancy Services in the collection of £46million of rent and service charges per year. In 2017, Tenancy Services achieved accreditation from the Housing Quality Network (HQN) for its income management service and introduced its Income Management Strategy in 2018; this strategy was now being reviewed, especially in light of the Social Housing Act 2023, which placed greater focus on the consumer standards and its 4 principles. The recent review of the service by HQN highlighted a high level of performance across the service area, which placed the Council’s Housing Services in a good position ahead of its inspection by the Housing Regulator in February 2025.

It was RESOLVED:

a)             That Executive approves and adopts the Income Management Strategy 2025-27 as appended to the report.

Reason: The Income Management Strategy provides a consistent, complaint and proportionate response to delivering a Housing Management Service.

b)             That Executive authorises the Assistant Director for Housing, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing, to make minor amendments and updates to the approved Strategy to reflect changes in legislation, regulations or best practice.

Reason: So that the Council’s Income Management Strategy can be kept up to date.