Issue - meetings

This report makes recommendations following a review of BCP FuturePlaces Ltd’s (FuturePlaces) work programme and business plan to enable BCP Council to deliver financially sustainable investment and development.

[PLEASE NOTE: Should the Cabinet wish to discuss the detail of the confidential appendix at Appendix 5, the meeting will be required to move into Confidential (Exempt) Session].

RESOLVED that Cabinet: -

(a)             agreed the outcome of the FuturePlaces business plan projects’ review, as set out in Table 12.1;

(b)            agreed to Option 1, the closure of FuturePlaces company and the bringing in-house of the development and investment activities of the company;

(c)             agreed the principles, as set out in Appendix 3, to be applied to the closure of FuturePlaces financial accounts in respect to work in progress;

(d)            delegates to the Director of Finance in consultation with the Chief Operations Officer, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Leader the implementation of these decisions and application of these principles (Appendix 3) to enable closure of FuturePlaces accounts and to report the final outcome position back to Cabinet;

(e)             noted the estimated range of between (£2.23m) and £1.24m for the orderly closure of FuturePlaces accounts after the provision already made;

(f)              noted the £636k additional cost for the in-house delivery of development for the period 1 November 2023 to 31 March 2024;

(g)            agreed to include in the proposed general fund base revenue budget of the council, from 2024/25 onwards, £1.526m to recognise the additional cost for the in-house delivery of regeneration accompanied with a principle of capitalising such costs where appropriate to do so; and

(h)            supports the recommendation from the Corporate and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee and defers the decision on the disposal of the former civic offices in Poole and Christchurch to enable further work to be undertaken, with a report being brought back to the next Cabinet meeting on the disposal of the Christchurch civic offices and a report being brought back in early 2024 to deal with the disposal of the Poole civic offices.

Voting: Nem. Con. (1 abstention)

Portfolio Holder: Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Dynamic Places

Reason

To achieve the corporate vision of delivery of dynamic places. To respond to the DHLUC governance review report, in particular the recommendation to set out a clear portfolio of projects with timescales for delivery for FuturePlaces, and to meet the ambitions of the new administration. To exercise appropriate controls on commitments for expenditure on development and to facilitate the Council taking the leading role on delivery of investment and development projects.

The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Dynamic Places presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Cabinet was advised that the report makes recommendations following a review of BCP FuturePlaces Ltd’s (FuturePlaces) work programme and business plan to enable BCP Council to deliver financially sustainable investment and development.

Cabinet was informed that the paper had been presented and discussed at the Corporate and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee the previous week, and that there had been a robust discussion.

Councillors addressed the Cabinet and a question was raised in terms of when the report would be presented for discussion by Full Council. In relation to this Members were advised that recommendations (a-g) were decisions which were delegated to Cabinet to resolve as they fell within the remit of the Cabinet, and that recommendation (h) as set out on the report would require approval by Full Council.

Concerns were raised with regards to the capacity of the team if bringing the service in house, and the need to get the structure and capacity right.

The Chairman of the Corporate and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee addressed the Cabinet highlighting the comprehensive discussion on this item which had taken place at the recent meeting of the Committee. In relation to this Cabinet was advised that the following recommendations had been made at the meeting.

The Corporate and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommend to Cabinet that:

1)     recommendations a) – g) as outlined in the report be approved by Cabinet;Voting: 9:0 (2 abstentions)

2)     recommendation h), as outlined in the report for recommendation to Council, be deferred by Cabinet, to enable further work to be undertaken on the subject of the future of the civic offices in Poole and Christchurch. This deferral is recommended to enable all councillors to fully understand the options for the civic offices, particularly around leasehold and freehold options, and to address issues around that part of the former Poole Civic Centre known as ‘the vertical slice’, whilst recognising that there is a need to progress this whole issue as quickly as possible.

Voting: Unanimous

Members not on the Cabinet addressed the meeting in support of the recommendations from the Corporate and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

In relation to the recommendation from the Corporate and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee the Cabinet discussed supporting the potential deferral of the decision relating to the disposal of the former civic offices to enable more time to assess the options relating to the Poole site further.

Members raised the possibility of bringing back the disposal of the civic offices in Christchurch to the November Cabinet meeting with the Poole element coming back in early 2024 to enable more interrogation around the options.

RESOLVED that Cabinet: -

(a)             agreed the outcome of the FuturePlaces business plan projects’ review, as set out in Table 12.1;

(b)            agreed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34

This report makes recommendations following a review of BCP FuturePlaces Ltd’s (FuturePlaces) work programme and business plan to enable BCP Council to deliver financially sustainable investment and development.

The Leader of Council presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Leader of Council introduced Members to the scrutiny of the report to Cabinet. The Leader emphasised that the proposals within the report had arisen from the decision of the Council to progress work on regeneration in a way that was more fitting for the Council within the context of the new Political environment since May 2023 elections and within the context of the rapidly changing economic environment generally. The Leader explained that the new proposed approach intended to focus resources upon areas of work that the Council had identified as its key priorities. It was emphasised, however, that, although the suggestion was to bring the operations and activities of ‘FuturePlaces’ into the Council, the report should not be considered as a commentary upon the quality and value of the work already undertaken and produced by ‘FuturePlaces’. This was also endorsed by Karima Fahmy, the interim Non-Executive Chair of ‘FuturePlaces’, who had been invited and was in attendance at the meeting and the Non-Executive Board members had been closely involved with discussions. The Committee recorded there thanks to the Board and their appreciation of the role undertaken by them.

Members of the Committee raised questions about the implications of the proposals in terms of Human Resources and were assured that staff currently employed directly by ‘FuturePlaces’ had been closely involved in the discussions so far and with Human Resources representatives also involved. It had been made clear that all staff would have the opportunity to transfer into the employment of the Council with their terms and conditions of employment protected in accordance with legislation.

The Committee explored the relative merits of the in-house option compared to the existing ‘FuturePlaces’ model. There was recognition that through bringing the operation in-house the Council would have more direct control of the operations than was currently the case and that, because of that, the desired focus upon delivery of priorities for the local community would be more effectively achieved. There were also expected to be advantages in bringing the Council’s Housing Delivery and Commissioning teams into the same in-house Directorate. Similarly, there was an expectation of lower office accommodation and resources costs arising from using office space which was available within the Council offices rather than incurring costs of sourcing office space externally. In response to questions, it was confirmed that notice to terminate the lease of external office space had already been given.

The Committee considered and questioned estimates of the financial costs of closing ‘FuturePlaces’ and it was hoped that it would be possible to more accurately express the closedown costs. In response, it was explained that ‘FuturePlaces’ were currently carrying out a process of providing a summary of each specific project and that once this was complete, very much more accurate assessments of value was expected to become  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16