Issue - meetings

To consider a presentation on the Corporate Landlord Model

The Committee considered a presentation on the Council’s Corporate Landlord Model from the Facilities Manager and the Head of Development.

Corporate Landlord was a project to centralise all property functions, to be managed by Assets. Currently the management of the Council’s assets was fragmented. Some assets were being managed corporately by Assets and some were being managed by the services that used those assets such as buildings and land. The purpose of centralising all assets was to achieve efficiencies in the management and maintenance of assets.

With the exception of schools, highways infrastructure, and assets devolved/transferred as part of Local Service Delivery, all assets would be included in the Council’s Corporate Landlord Model.

One of the methods that Assets would use to manage assets was a property helpdesk. The helpdesk would be a first point of call for any issues which building managers, service managers, councillors or the public had with any of the Council’s assets. The helpdesk could be used to report building repairs and maintenance issues such as a leaking roof or broken windows as well as issues with cleaning or waste removal, and electrical issues such as fire alarms or automatic doors. It was suggested that the benefits of the helpdesk would be an improved customer service, more responsive maintenance service, people kept better informed of progress with issues and helped to manage contractors more effectively. The Committee were hopeful that the sheer number of assets and the likely number of calls from various sources would not overwhelm the helpdesk services and that operators had the necessary skills to deal with each call. Officers assured the Committee that the helpdesk would have sufficient resources and expertise to deal with the demand for the service.

The Committee was interested to know how the new system would perform and whether it would deliver savings, improve the management of assets, ensure disposal of surplus assets at a good rate of return and improve the devolution/transfer of assets as part of Local Service Delivery.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the presentation be noted.   

(b)  That the Facilities Manager be requested to return to the Committee in six months with an update on how the system has been working.   

(c)  That service managers be requested to give feedback on the effectiveness of the Corporate Landlord Model in six months time.