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Agenda item

Assets and Estates Report

To consider a report on the Council’s Assets and Estates from the Head of Business Enterprise and Commercial Services.

 

Minutes:

The Head of Business Enterprise and Commercial Services introduced the Assets and Estates Report, which set out the improvements and key activities to be undertaken.  Members noted that the Council still held extensive land and property and the need to centralise its management had been recognised with the adoption of the Corporate Landlord Model in 2015.  This improved the management of revenue, maintenance and income generation of the Council’s property and assets portfolio. 

 

Members noted that discussions had taken place with Public Sector partners regarding working together to best use buildings in the public sector, as it had been found that many were underutilised, often unfit for purpose and not being used for their full potential.  Work was being undertaken to remove the barriers preventing organisations sharing properties across the public sector through the one public estate programme which the Council was leading on.  

 

The Head of Business Enterprise and Commercial Services explained that a new project evaluation framework, known as ‘Hopper’ had been adopted to inform and prioritise investment decisions and to consider how the Council used and acquired land and property.  Each improvement plan would incorporate an assessment of opportunity and risk for each investment project proposal and improvement activity.  This was indicative of the movement away from the previous strategy where assets were disposed of to generate capital receipts.

 

Members noted that an assets and estates investment programme was being brought forward to identify land and property that could be used to leverage return and generate income to underpin the financial strategy. 

 

To enable this, the Assets and Estates Service required restructuring with officers in post who had the right skills, experience and capacity to deliver the innovation, place shaping and leadership required.  To achieve this two new key posts had been created as set out in section 5.5 of the report. In addition to this, it was proposed to recruit to a commercial/development specialist on a fixed term contract as set out in section 6.2 of the report. The Chief Executive observed that the Council did not always have the capacity in-house to act as the intelligent client and that a fixed-term contract might not attract the individual with all the necessary experience and skills to fully perform the function required.  He commented that despite recent changes in legislation the Council was not fully in the commercial arena and had to be mindful to operate within its powers. 

 

Members discussed this post and it was suggested that no appointment should be made but specialist contractors recruited as required specific to each project.

 

Members discussed the importance of Officer intelligence and Member involvement in situations where the strategic interests of the County conflicted with the needs and wishes of local communities.  Members observed the importance of taking a whole county approach to development and investment and the importance of working with Place Plans.  It was suggested that the Scrutiny Chairs should receive a briefing on future investment. 

 

Members requested further information about the recent Peer Review finding that £2m of projected savings were judged as being high risk.  The Head of Business Enterprise and Commercial Services advised that this was because detailed plans were not available at the time of their visit but a range of projects were in the process of evaluation and development and it was anticipated that the first key projects would be considered by full Council at its July meeting. The Chief Executive added that it was important to find the right investments and ensure that the Council had the legal powers to pursue them.  He continued that it could take up to a year to fully develop the investment plans.

 

RESOLVED:

That subject to further papers before committee having a greater emphasis on outcome; and

the commercial/development specialist described in section 6.2 of the report should be commissioned, the recommendation of the report be endorsed. 

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

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