1. That a rent reduction of 1% on secure tenancies, as required by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, be approved.

2. That an average rent increase of 4.86% on shared ownership properties, be approved.

3. That the proposed rent changes in 1 and 2 above be effective from 1 April 2019.

4. That the increase in garage rents by 2.5% to £11.70 per week for tenants (£14.04, being £11.70 plus VAT for non-tenants), with all variants on a standard garage receiving a proportionate increase, be approved.

5. That the South Essex Homes core management fee of £5,738,000 for 2019/20, be approved, with additional one-off funding also being made available of:

·         £10,000 for the data cleansing, training and embedding of new data protection practices in compliance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR); and

·         £140,000 to undertake a project to achieve better integration between the various ICT systems that the company uses, with the aim to achieve efficiencies going forward.

6. That the South Essex Homes proposals for average changes of 4% in service charges and 17% in heating charges, be approved.

7. That the following appropriations, be approved:

·         £60,000 to the Repairs Contract Pensions earmarked reserve;

·         £1,397,000 to the Major Repairs earmarked reserve; and

·         £272,000 HRA to the Capital Investment earmarked reserve.

8. That, subject to 1 to 7 above, the HRA budget as set out in Appendix 1 to the submitted report, be approved.

9. That the value of the Council’s capital allowance for 2019/20 be declared as £49.601M, as determined in accordance with regulation 16 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations.