Our Private Sector Team is looking to speak with Angus Registered Landlords who have tenant or tenants that have built up rent arrears between March 2020 and August 2021 as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team may be able to offer assistance and invite you to contact them at PRSenquiries@angus.gov.uk for further information.
Calling all Angus Council tenants!
The consultation on the rent increase for 2022/23 only runs until Wednesday 3 November, so you’ve still got time to register your vote.
To vote, click on the survey link and choose one of the 4 options.
We are currently carrying out electric heating upgrades at Andy Stewart Court and Cliffview Court, Arbroath, Balmain Court and Murray Court, Montrose, Springfield, Forfar and St Drostans Court, Brechin.
Our Contractor has advised of a further delay in the supply of the heaters required to carry out the heating upgrade and anticipates that they will be unable to restart any electric heating installations before January 2022. This is due to global supply chains remaining severely stretched because of the worldwide pandemic and many other impacts.
We apologise for the delay, and appreciate your co-operation at this time and hope you find this information useful, but if you have any queries about this post, please contact us by emailing HousingTechnical@angus.gov.uk
We have produced a Report Card which lets you know how our Housing services performed last year against the standards set by the Scottish Housing Regulator in the Scottish Social Housing Charter.
The Report Card was prepared after consultation with our Tenants Steering Group to ensure we have reported the performance our tenants think is most important. The Report Card is available on our website.
Abertay Housing Association has one of their 16 properties in New Road, Forfar available for let.
The properties were completed in 2018 and comprise of 8 upper floor and 8 lower floor amenity flats for people over 50.
The development is in an ideal location, close to shops and services. The properties are for single persons or couples.
They combine modern living with an open plan living/ kitchen space and are highly energy efficient.
An upper floor property is available to rent now. The property has a modern bathroom complete with a shower over a bath. The current monthly rent is £337.51 with a service charge for communal landscaping of £7.46.
If you are interested in this property, please contact Abertay Housing Association’s customer service team on 01382 903545 for more information or to arrange a viewing.
Arbroath, Forfar and Montrose Community Housing Teams are all currently affected by staff shortages including staff sickness.
We will try to respond to customers as quickly as we possibly can and would ask that any contact is made in the first instance to the ACCESSLine so that your enquiry can be directed accordingly.
We’ll deal with all non-emergency enquires in date order – we apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause and ask that you please bear with us as these shortages are outwith our control.
We are unclear how long we will be in this position, but will keep everyone updated.
We are delighted to see tenants move in to thirteen new highly energy efficient homes in the Muirton area of Arbroath.
A site where lock-up garages once stood, now provides much-needed high-quality accommodation for affordable rent – thanks to our partnership with our construction partner CCG (Scotland).
Scottish Government provided additional grant funding for the project and the new properties will be managed by our Arbroath Community Housing Team.
Community engagement with tenants and homeowners helped to ensure that plans to deliver affordable housing reflected local views. This saw an area of Bloomfield Park (Donkey Park) absorbed into the development and improvements made to the local play park.
The Muirton site now includes new childrens’ play equipment and a new footpath/cycle path with lighting that will improve active travel and safe routes to school. Additional car parking spaces have been provided for residents and families visiting the park. A programme of tree-planting will take place in the park this autumn.
Our Communities and Finance Convener, Cllr Mark Salmond, saw the completed project today and was delighted to be told by tenants that their new homes and environment had given them a real sense of community.
Mr Salmond said: “This is the latest example of Angus Council’s ambitions to provide high quality places and spaces for our citizens.
“We are focused on providing modern, energy efficient, affordable homes within better environments, with better facilities and improved access routes and links. We want everyone to live in places that they are proud to call home within communities that are accessible, well-connected, better and healthier places to live.”
The new Muirton development is made up of one, three and four-bedroom properties. They provide much sought-after accommodation for families, couples and single occupants and are all highly energy-efficient, taking advantage of solar power to help minimise energy costs for tenants.
CCG Scotland successfully navigated several challenges that arose as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, including social distancing and materials/workforce availability.
CCG Director, John Baggley, said: “I give my thanks to Angus Council for choosing CCG to deliver Muirton Road, the first homes of their kind formed from our strategic housing partnership. We worked closely with the Council and our partners to optimise the design of the homes whilst our advanced construction methods will deliver long-term benefits to the end-user in the form of reduced heat loss resulting in lower energy bills. Furthermore, our involvement in the development has created a legacy of value for the local community with new employment, curriculum support for local schools and a financial donation to a locally based project amongst the work undertaken during the programme. CCG look forward to completing works on a further 38 homes for Angus Council in Arbroath later in the year.”
A number of tenants have contacted us today to inform us they have been phoned by someone asking questions about repairs and rent. The telephone number used was 0330 190 0299 and we believe it is a scam call.
We have alerted our Trading Standards team but in the meantime if you receive a call from this number please hang up.
Are you an Angus Council tenant? If so, we need your views on the proposed rent increase for 2022/23 and options on how your rent money will be spent.
All four options would keep your rent amongst the lowest in Scotland.
Why are we proposing to increase the rent?
We need to make sure the money we receive from rent is enough to pay for existing services, including repairs, but also to pay for larger improvements needed for tenants’ homes and to help build new homes.
Rent increases allow us to invest in our homes to continue to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. Rent increases will also allow us to meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing.
The rent rise is partly based on the inflation measure of CPI (Consumer Price Index), and in recent years an additional set percentage of 1% had been agreed between us and the Tenant Rent Setting Group. CPI in July was 2%. CPI+1% is the minimum rent increase required to allow us to deliver our current plans and manage inflationary rises. We need to increase the rent at least by inflation because that’s what it costs us to deliver existing services. However, following feedback received last year we have considered some alternative options with input from the Tenant Rent Setting Group.
Freezing rents is not a viable option as this would not provide enough income to pay for existing services and repairs. It would result in services being reduced, and we would also not be able to make improvements to existing stock, for example energy efficiency improvements. A rent freeze would likely result in higher rent increases in future to enable us to cover the shortfall.
How we decide on the Increase
We’re carrying out a consultation to help tenants consider the rent increase options and clearly see how the rent money will be spent.
The results of this survey will be presented at the communities committee in February 2022, where the final decision on a rent increase for 2022/23 will be made.
Rent Increase – the options
The Tenant Rent Setting Group has agreed four options which the members feel will bring benefits to tenants while keeping rents affordable.
Please choose your preferred rent rise option. The four options are:
The tenant representatives recommend that tenants choose Option 2 which would mean a rent rise of 2.5%. This option would require additional borrowing of £0.961 million to deliver the current Business Plan. It, along with Scottish Government grant funding, would enable us to build 70 new homes in 2022-23, as well as these improvements to existing stock: 450 Gas & Electric Heating installations, 600 properties receiving external wall insulation & energy efficiency measures, 700 bathrooms.
Options 1, 2 and 3 would leave a shortfall over the period of the Capital Plan to 2024/25. This would need to be funded by additional borrowing or a reduction in Capital expenditure, for example fewer energy efficiency improvements to homes. Additional borrowing to cover this shortfall would reduce the amount of money we can borrow longer term across the next 30 years. This may mean that there would habe to be higher rent rises in future years to cover the shortfall.
The graph below shows our average weekly rents over the past six years compared to other neighbouring local authorities (figures from the Scottish Housing Regulator).
Angus Council average weekly rents table
How the rent increase options would affect average Angus Council weekly rents
Under the Regulatory Framework, we must submit an Annual Assurance Statement to the Scottish Housing Regulator every year. We also must publish it so tenants and service users can see it.
Our statement was approved at Communities Committee on 28 September and states that the Committee, which is our governing body, is assured we meet all statutory requirements.
Angus Council Housing News 