Decision details

The Committee;

(1)          Noted and agreed in principle to the establishment of a company or companies to acquire, hold and trade in property;

(2)          Agreed that a working group be established comprising the Chief Executive and other Officers listed at the top of the report  (Kathryn Beldon, Rod Brown, Lee Duffy, Mark Shepard and Simon Young) together with the Chairman of Strategy & Resources Committee and the Vice Chairman of the Community & Wellbeing Committee for the purposes set out in the report;

(3)          Agreed that any Member appointed to the working group who was unable to attend a meeting of the working group should be able to nominate another Member of the Council to substitute for them;

(4)          Agreed that an initial budget of £50k be established to meet the costs of procuring specialist legal, financial and other necessary professional advice and set up costs;

(5)          Agreed to recommend that Council increase the Commercial Property Acquisition Find by a further £60m to be funded by Prudential Borrowing;

(6)          Agreed to recommend to Council a supplementary capital expenditure estimate of £60m in the financial year 2016/17 for (5) above;

(7)          Agreed to recommend to Council that the Council’s Prudential Indicators be revised to reflect the additional £60m of Prudential Borrowing;

(8)          Noted that a mid-year appraisal update report would be made to the Committee on the strategy, portfolio performance and status of acquisitions made from the Commercial Property Acquisition Fund;

(9)          Noted that a new regular update report would be made to the Financial Policy Panel on the financial status of the investment property portfolio and rental income profile.

Note: Councillor Kate Chinn wished her disagreement to recommendations (5) and (6) be recorded.