Agenda item

The Executive Member for Investment and Companies.

The Portfolio Holder for Investment and Companies, Councillor Archer, presented the first annual update on progress to deliver the Council’s Commercial strategy, Part 1 of which was agreed in November 2020 and Part 2 in December 2021.

Progress on commercial assets and commercial services this year had been positive with work on commercial assets making a particular contribution. Achievements set out in the report included: securing almost £1.2m from new property lettings, preventing nearly £400k of costs from void properties and good progress on developments at The Rise and Wheatley Court enabling cautious income projections of £250k in 2024/25, increasing to £800k by 2027-28. The Council had also agreed to buy temporary and emergency housing units, approved a programme of re-letting café premises in parks to improve income and develop future opportunities on remaining key properties and potential land assembly.

A review of fees and charges had been completed to make Council services more commercial. This exercise had identified approximately £1m in savings and additional income. Information on those changes was considered in the annual budget papers.

There were areas where plans had changed following new government funding regulations. For example, the Council was no longer progressing plans for a holding company. Proposals to strengthen the Council’s procurement and contract management skill base had also been slower than envisaged due to recruitment challenges.

The report was considered by Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 8 December 2022 and additional information including the outcome of individual development projects would be provided. Committee Members also expressed interest in continuing to explore all options for future use of assets and service provision but agreed that in some cases the decision not to progress with a commercial opportunity was the right decision.

Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Harrison, thanked Councillor Archer for highlighting the good progress and achievements that had been made over the year. Additional financial information on projects with both revenue and capital implications had been requested and provided as well as information on revenues and benefits trading activities. In addition, there had been interest in the progress on the housing strategy and plans to move forward future projects using the housing reserve. The formal quarterly asset performance report to the Partner, Shareholder and Trustee Sub-Committee was welcomed.

Visiting Members commented that questions had been raised and information sought on business plan feasibility on housing projects such as Wheatley Court in Redhill. They had also raised questions on social housing future developments as well as information set out in the section on Priority 3: Asset (Re-) Development – Securing new income streams and/or capital receipts from development projects (p28 of the agenda pack).

Councillor Brunt, Leader of the Council, noted that the housing strategy was separate to the commercial strategy, being about delivering more affordable housing across the borough. He confirmed that the Council was now a registered provider of social housing since earlier this year and the Council was providing housing already through that mechanism.

Officers confirmed that as a registered provider of social housing this could attract funding from Homes England. The Council was looking at the land it owned and future opportunities, but increasingly high building costs made building from scratch extremely expensive. Building Wheatley Court had been a positive result for the Council.

Visiting Members also asked about work with Surrey County Council on renewable energy investment opportunities. It was confirmed that officers worked closely with the County’s growing climate change team on these issues, including on renewable energy and retrofitting domesticproperties.

RESOLVED that: 

1.      The Commercial Strategy Annual Progress Report at Annex 1, along with the observations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, is noted and agreed for publication on the Council’s website.