Decision details

To facilitate a partnership between the Ferry project and YMCA Trinity for properties at Octavia View in Wisbech, that will create a Housing Benefit complaint way to enable FDC to recover more Housing Benefit subsidy than we currently do for license agreements signed by residents at Octavia View in need of Supported Housing.

To enable this the Council is required to enter into 2 agreements:

1.    YMCA Trinity and FDC (Confidential Appendix 1) - Deed of Indemnity agreement - to indemnify the risk of a future a change in assessment regarding national regulations that leaves cost not being fully recovered again and that cost falling on YMCA to find the gap in finance. Reasonably YMCA require the protection to their financial strategy against this risk recognising the financial benefit for the arrangement between YMCA and Ferry will be for FDC’s medium term financial strategy.

2.    Ferry Project and FDC (confidential Appendix 2) – A bad debt agreement – to protect the Ferry project from the new arrangement from paying YMCA for bad debt (for example housing benefit over payment) which would be something they do not have to do under the current arrangement. FDC will pay that bad debt with close monitoring as to those payments being made. In recent years this amount has been between £10k and £30k.

Decision:

To approve entering into 2 agreements:

·         Indemnity Agreement between YMCA and FDC (confidential Appendix 1)

·         Bad Debt Agreement between Ferry Project and FDC (confidential Appendix 2)

to support sustaining the Council’s legal requirements for meeting Homelessness duties.

The benefit subsidy impact on FDC budgets at Octavia View is circa £350k per annum. The partnership between the Ferry and the YMCA enables that subsidy to be recovered. Neither the Ferry nor YMCA could enter into this partnership without the protection of the 2 agreements.

To not undertake the agreement which would mean status quo and lead the Council to continue to have the impact of loss of Housing Benefit subsidy which places significant financial strain on our Medium-Term Financial Strategy.