Questions from Members
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9, to allow Members to ask questions about Council activities. A question may only be asked if notice of seven clear working days has been given.
Question from Councillor Peter Roberts to the Leader of the Council
When a tenant moves on from a council property we tend to refurbish it before the next occupant can move in. Why can’t we leave the properties and rent as seen, especially where the property is in reasonable order, similar to the private sector, leaving carpet curtains etc to help the new tenant where acceptable. Modernising them thereafter on a time scale in line with long standing tenants. Thus enabling the council to offer social housing more quickly to the market place by staggering the refurbishment and by spreading the cost, this could allowing existing tenants, in more need, to be modernised first, before they become urgent.
Minutes:
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9, Members were allowed to ask questions about Council activities. A question could only be asked if notice of seven clear working days had been given.
a) Question submitted by Councillor Peter Roberts to Councillor Steve Fritchley, Leader of the Council:
When a tenant moves on from a council property we tend to refurbish it before the next occupant can move in. Why can’t we leave the properties and rent as seen, especially where the property is in reasonable order, similar to the private sector, leaving carpet curtains etc to help the new tenant where acceptable. Modernising them thereafter on a time scale in line with long standing tenants. Thus enabling the council to offer social housing more quickly to the market place by staggering the refurbishment and by spreading the cost, this could allowing existing tenants, in more need, to be modernised first, before they become urgent.
The Leader of the Council thanked Councillor Peter Roberts for his question, and believed that the suggestion was a sensible approach that the Council should adopt and that the possibility was already being investigated by Scrutiny and the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Community Safety.
Councillor Peter Roberts did not submit a supplementary question.