Agenda item

Report to follow.

Cabinet considered a report seeking approval to proceed with the establishment of a Council-owned company to deliver the functions of a building and planning support consultancy service.

The new company would provide a one-stop-shop for people seeking to make investments. The aim was to have the new company operational by 1^st  April 2015.

The key current service delivery areas were:

• Building Control
• Local Land Charges
• Planning support, liaison and customer interface
• Street Naming and Numbering

An options appraisal had been conducted and had concluded that the new ASDV should take the form of a wholly-owned company limited by shares. Officers had developed a detailed business case and plan for the implementation of the new company.

The relevant budgets for the services under consideration were shown in paragraph 11.1 of the report. If the Council did nothing, it was estimated that the services would lose income to their competitors which could lead to an additional cost to the authority of £892k over the next five years. However, it was estimated that the formation of a new company and the initiation of a number of creative income generation streams over the first five years of operation would turn this projected additional cost of £892k into a small saving of £269k – a net benefit of £1.161m.

Primary legislation within the Infrastructure Bill, which was due to receive Royal Assent in March 2015, included the transfer of local land charges to central government from October 2017 onwards to provide a central digital service for local land charges. When the details of the government’s land charge reforms had become clearer, the financial projections might need to be reviewed. 

On consideration of this matter, a number of visiting members expressed the view that the matter would benefit from consideration by the relevant overview and scrutiny committee. The Leader supported this view.

The Leader also agreed to review the proposed member representation on the board of the new company.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet

1.    notes the revised financial detail set out in section 11, acknowledging that the lack of clarity over the Land Registry’s proposals for reform of land search charges makes all forecasts provisional;

2.    subject to consideration of the proposals by the relevant overview and scrutiny committee, approves the implementation of a new Building and Planning Support Consultancy company which is structured as a Teckal company  to  act as an agent for the Council in accordance with the detailed business case and implementation plan attached as Appendix A;

3.    gives any necessary delegated authority to the Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning, the Head of Legal Services and the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Service Commissioning to proceed with that implementation in accordance with the project place to include leases, licences, guarantees and all necessary contractual documentation including all TUPE provisions;

4.    approves, through a contract, the intention to transfer Council Building and Planning Support services to the new company on 1 April 2015;

5.    agrees to the commencement of a formal consultation period with all the staff who might be affected by any proposed TUPE transfer; and

6.    authorises Officers to commence formal negotiations with other local authorities who may be interested in forming partnership arrangements in respect of building control and associated services.