Agenda item

Steve Caplan, Assistant Director: Property and Steve Booth, Head of Property to update the Overview and Scrutiny Commission on the methodology and process to create the Council’s new Asset Management Plan together with the mechanisms for its utilisation.

Steve Caplan, Assistant Director: Property and Steve Booth, Head of Property attended and updated the Overview and Scrutiny Commission on the methodology and process to create the Council’s new Asset Management Plan together with the mechanisms for its utilisation.

Stuart McKellar, Director: Finance introduced the Draft Asset Management Plan 2019 – 2022 (AMP) and advised:

·         The AMP was a key input to the financial planning process.

·         Bracknell Forest’s AMP had elements that were specific to Bracknell Forest such as the regeneration of the town centre. 

·         Other elements of the AMP were common to AMPs produced by other Local Authorities.

·         The AMP would go to the Executive for consideration in February 2019 and any comments made by the Overview and Scrutiny Commission would be included.

·         The Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants (CIPFA) capital strategy was being finalised for consideration by the Executive in December 2018.

·         The Capital Strategy will be a strategic document.

Steve Caplan, Assistant Director: Property outlined the purpose of the AMP and how it would meet the agreed objectives.  He advised the Commission that:

·         This AMP was a refresh under a new financial plan under a CIPFA requirement.

·         It was a subset of the new financial strategy.

·         Buy in had been obtained from the departments as to what services were needed. 

·         The AMP supported the transformation process.

·         The draft had been to the Departmental Management Team (DMT).  It would be created and crafted including their feedback and a formal decision by the Executive would be given in Feb 2019.

The Chairman advised he was prepared to defer the other agenda items if it became necessary to consider this substantive item thoroughly.

A new slide had been added to the presentation since the agenda was published.  The amended presentation has been published as a supplementary paper to the agenda. 

Steve Booth, Head of Property presented to the Commission.

In addition to the detail contained within the presentation, Steve Caplan, Assistant Director: Property and Steve Booth, Head of Property informed Members of the Commission:

·         Non-operational property under Property Services in Bracknell contained over 200 shops and industrial units. 

·         Public Houses were owned on long leases and there were investment properties in other locations such as Huntwood Court in Southampton.

·         There were over 200 residential properties. 

o   72 were flats above shops.

o   100 properties were held by housing and used for homeless and special needs accommodation

·         The business case for the development of Heathlands was still subject to negotiations with the NHS and whether the funding will become available will be decided in January 2019.

·         The domino effect means that if one property is repurposed, then there is a consequential effect on another one.

Arising from questions from Members, Steve Caplan, Assistant Director: Property and Steve Booth, Head of Property advised Members:

·         Any concerns about the prioritisation of repairs and the efficient targeting of resources to those repairs should be reported to Steve Caplan, Assistant Director: Property.

·         No properties were left as idle stock.

·         Empty surplus stock was not sat on.

·         Properties identified for disposal were those no one had any use for. 

·         The property team worked with Silva Homes and would always take opportunities to work together where they existed.

·         Operational use determined if a property was surplus to requirements. If it wasn’t occupied by a service area when it is closed down, it would be declared surplus by the directorate.  When this happened, the Asset Management Board assessed if anyone else within the Asset Management Group could use it.  If there was no use, CMT and the Executive would consider it and provide consent to dispose of the asset.

·         Winkfield Manor had been vacant for many years but didn’t cost anything and had been delisted.

o   It sat next to a Silva Homes property waiting for Silva Homes to decommission their property which had now been vacated.

o   It had been considered by an older person’s accommodation group and was a joint sale with Silva Homes.  

o   It was in the green belt.

o   If it was redeveloped it would have to be replaced with a development of the same volume of accommodation.

·         The Council spent £2,368,235 on electricity in 2017/18.  This spend was the total cost of electricity to the Council in 2017/18 for the whole estate. 

·         No specific money was set aside as a land fund to buy land.

·         Amber House and regent House were specifically purchased to recycle the land for development and the money from that has been repurposed. Purchases such as this were done on a case by case basis.

·         The long leases on public houses were mostly 99-125 years.  The leases now had 60-70 years on them but the peel Centre had 150 years left to run.

·         The auditors had advised that voluntary aided schools should not be on the asset register as the Council does not own the buildings.  The buildings were owned by the Diocese.

·         The Council owned the playing fields of most of the Church Of England Schools, but not the school buildings.

Action:  Steve Caplan Assistant Director: Property to advise the Commission why Binfield Church of England Primary School is in the asset list.

·         As little property as possible was held. 

·         Value that could be used to provide services should not be tied up in buildings.

·         Assets were not held on to accrue capital value in general although there were some exceptions where assets had been held because the time was not optimal to divest them.  Winkfield Manor and the sale of land at Garth were good examples of this.  The land at Garth was part of a strategic plan to sell the land once it had been zoned and CIL was in place, and it was the appropriate time to repurpose the money.  The land was held for 4 years then sold.

·         All assets were subject to a revolving, condition based, 5 year, independent, external asset survey.

·         The asset survey categorised which elements were a priority and produced a list of urgent matters (1D’s) which were bid for on the capital programme. 

·         The capital programme tried to deal with the backlog and urgent items first. 

·         The Asset Management Group looked at the state of properties. 

·         The Commercial Centre was an issue. 

·         Condition based surveys were there to identify the operational priorities and how the bids for capital should be built.

·         Selling Easthampstead Park Conference Centre before April 2018 had not been in the Council’s interest because of clawback.

·         The asset review process was driven by whether the property was operationally needed. 

·         Only stock that was needed to deliver services was held.

·         A forward plan was held which accounted for future usage requirements in advance of just 12 months and was part of the rigorous consultation process.

·         The forward plan considered the corporate plan and service plans and the AMP delivered what assets were needed.

·         The space at Braccan Walk was being considered for youth use.  There was a drama club there previously and since then it had been used as a Council storage facility.   A bid had come forward to CMT to fund that project.

In the course of discussion, it was raised that the presence of the Binfield Community Centre being listed within the S106 Projects gave the impression that the funding arrangements had been agreed.  It should be noted that no decisions had yet been made.

Action:  Steve Caplan Assistant Director: Property to appendicise the priority list from the condition based survey to the plan.