Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the following Councillors:

Cllr Milkinderpal Jaspal

Cllr Payal Bedi-Chada

Cllr Udey Singh

Cllr Susan Roberts

There were no declarations of interest recorded.

Claire Nye, Director of Finance, and Julia Nock,Head of Assets, to present report.

Julia Nock, Head of Assets, introduced the report and commented the information was intended to give assurance to the panel about the effective management of the Council’s property portfolio. The Head of Assets advised the panel that the Council property portfolio covers 1900 land and building assets and is managed by the Corporate Landlord Team.

The Head of Assets advised the panel that the Council’s Strategic Asset Plan 2018-23 was approved by Cabinet in October 2018. The plan is separated into three parts. The Head of Assets briefed the panel on each part of the overall plan. The panel were referred to a copy of Strategic Asset Plan attached as Appendix 1.

The Head of Assets explained the disposal strategy and the importance of the capital receipts in supporting the Council’s Medium-Term Financial Plan. The panel were advised that there is a targeted asset rationalisation programme, which includes where appropriate the disposal of surplus assets. The Head of Assets advised that the service was on target to achieve its of target for 2018-19 and a programme of disposals had been identified for 2019-20.

The Head of Assets gave further examples of the work done to manage the property portfolio and the process by which decisions are made about which assets are disposed, this will include consideration of the running and maintenance costs and location. All proposals relating to the disposal of assets are reported to the Council’s Corporate Landlord Board for a decision.

The Head of Assets advised the panel of work done with external partners to effectively manage assets across Wolverhampton to maximise their potential.

The Head of Assets advised that to support this work a Public Sector Asset Management Board had been established, with representatives from key public sector partners.  The overall aim of the Board will be to provide a process to work collaboratively with partners from the health, police and other agencies to jointly rationalise and manage land and property assets.

The Board will also provide representatives to consider opportunities to reduce premises costs and make assets work better for communities and customers, for example, adopting a ‘campus’ type arrangement involving the sharing of buildings. In addition, work is being done to map assets held across the city and share this information with partners. The information will be used to look at opportunities for bringing assets together to make them more financially attractive to developers and deliver efficiency savings.

The first meeting of the group was held on 30 January 2019 where the terms of reference and governance arrangements were discussed. The Head of Assets briefed the panel on a range of initiatives intended to support the disposal programme for 2020-21.

Alison Shannon, Chief Accountant, advised the panel that regular updates take place between finance and members of the corporate landlord team to review progress towards the financial target for the disposable programme. The information is included the Capital Programme Report which is reported to Cabinet on a quarterly basis.

The panel queried the confidence in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Presentation of supporting evidence – Appendix 2 and Appendix 3

The panel agreed to note the supporting evidence.