Moray Council tenants to be consulted on grass cutting revisions

Council tenants are obliged under the terms of the tenancy agreement to take reasonable care to keep their garden from becoming overgrown, untidy or causing nuisance.

In recognition that some council tenants are considered medically unfit to cut their grass, a council grass cutting scheme was established and agreed by the Community Services Committee on 7 April 2004.

A thorough review of the scheme has been prompted by increasing costs for the service, with charges for the scheme falling well short of the cost of grass cutting.

Proposed revisions to the scheme include:

• Removing age from the eligibility criteria and focus on capability, as age does not accurately represent tenants’ physical or mental ability to carry out the task
• Apply criteria where the tenant must have a recognised long-term illness or disability in line with the legal definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010 - ‘if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.’ Substantial’ is more than minor or trivial and ‘long-term’ means 12 months or more
• Remove caveat of not having any other able-bodied person in household who is able to help to not having any other tenant
• Removal of free service for anyone on Housing Benefits or Universal Credit, as it does not necessarily evidence affordability issues. The Housing Service will continue to offer support to tenants to maximise their benefit entitlement
• Re-charge all eligible tenants who want to receive the service in-line with the revised terms and conditions for the full cost of the service with no applicable discounts
• Enhanced data and evidence collection for applicants and tenants accepted onto the scheme, in line with data protection and GDPR. This will include a review of the invoicing process and ensure more robust monitoring to assist with future modelling of the scheme
• An annual review of those on list to check they are still eligible
• Introduce a cap on the number of tenants on the list in line with resources provided by Open Spaces, which is currently a maximum of 700 gardens, along with introduction of a waiting list
• Non-payment will result in action taken to recover the amount owed and refusal of reregistration for the following season

The survey is open until 9 October 2024. Emails and paper copies of the survey are also being sent out to tenants.

If you have any questions or want more information please email housingpolicy@moray.gov.uk.

Chair of Moray Council’s Housing and Community Safety Committee, Cllr Amber Dunbar, said: “Following budget analysis, it was found that the current model of the scheme has effectively been partially subsidised by another service. Given budget pressures within all services, Housing will be picking up the full cost going forward. Therefore, we are seeking to create efficiencies and make the service fairer for tenants.  

“The proposed revisions to the grass cutting scheme are designed to ensure the right people are getting the right support from us to meet their tenancy obligations. 

“I’d like to see a high number of tenants take part in the consultation to make sure we are truly representative of our tenants when it comes to making a decision on the future of the scheme later in the year.”