Free cladding – the debate continues

The varying costs of external cladding for home owners on the Stonebridge Park Estate is still stirring up emotions especially as a small number are having the cladding carried out free of charge. I received an email from a lady living in Stonebridge Road yesterday who said:

“I contacted Nottingham City Homes with regards to the free cladding that some homeowners are having and I was told the reason these homes are getting it for free is because they haven't had any money from the council spent on their homes, i.e. new windows and doors, which means there is enough funding for them to have the cladding free of charge.

A home owner of Lytton Close “has not had any money spent on his house but he is not entitled to free cladding, this seems rather confusing for people don't you think?”

Which is very interesting, and another piece of the jigsaw.

Another concern is that the sums involved do not appear to add up. According to the following Report there are a total of 99 home owners on our estate, and therefore 161 rented properties eligible for the cladding work, making 260 in total.

On 25^th July 2012 Portfolio holder & local councillor Dave Liversidge agreed a decision with the City Council to make £99,000 available to help home owners to reduce the cost of their cladding before the August deadline. Add this to the total cost of the 16^th April decision and we have £3,006,144. If this money were shared equally among 260 residences, then it would provide £11,942 per property – enough to pay for the cladding work. Everyone should therefore be getting the cladding free of charge!

So why are home owners being asked to make an average contribution of £2.170 each?

If 99 Home owners were to pay this sum, it would amount to a £21,000 contribution on top of the £3,006,144 already made available for the cladding work!  Of course this does not include the installation of new double glazed doors etc.

Therefore another home owner living in Flewiitt Gardens this time, is to request information from both Nottingham City Council, and Nottingham City Homes, under the Freedom of Information Act to determine why some home owners are getting the cladding free of charge. This may also help to answer the query of whether home owners having to pay £2,170 are subsidising others paying less. And as there is enough money (£11,942) per household to allow everyone on our estate to get free cladding, why is it that home owners are having to pay over £2,000 each?

Click on the Report to open it in a new window.

Councillor Jon Collins: Leaders Key Decision meeting 16^th April 2012

Total NPower CESP funding £993,425

Total NCC funding £1,913,719

Total value of NCC decision: £2,907,144

Extracts from the Report

(1) CESP funding is only available until Dec 2012 and therefore the external enveloping works must be complete by October 2012 to ensure all funding can be claimed within the set time limit.

(2) PHD No 826 dated 21 March 2011 outlined the intention of providing all owner occupiers in the first phase a discount, with the remaining cost to be provided by the offer of a Property Appreciation Loan secured by a charge against the property. The discount and loan was to be funded from £251,000 of Regional Housing Board funding. However, none of the owner occupiers in the first phase have taken up the offer. As the CESP funding is now available for all properties on Stonebridge (NCC and Private) it is recommended that a discount be offered to all owner occupiers on Stonebridge estate. The £251,000 will therefore be divided equally between all 99 owner occupiers.

However, should there be a high take up on this, the amount of funding available will not allow for any additional assistance to be provided and therefore owner occupiers would themselves have to fund any costs that remain. The cost, following the CESP contribution and discount paid from the RHB fund is estimated to be an average cost of approx. £6,550 which includes the cost of new doors and windows. However negotiations with the contractor [WATES] and Npower may reduce this figure further.

Decision taken

• To approve the use of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Capital Programme as a contribution towards the cost of external enveloping works of all Nottingham City Council (NCC) properties on Stonebridge Estate

• To approve the of use of Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP) funds as a contribution to fund external enveloping works on all properties on Stonebridge Estate

• To amend the decision in Portfolio Holder Decision (PHD) 826 dated 21 March 2011 which offered owner occupiers a Property Appreciation Loan to be funded from Regional Housing Board (RHB) funding and instead use this fund to offer owner occupiers a discount towards the cost of external enveloping works.

By Richard Pearson