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Issue - meetings

Adoption of Asset Management Plan

 

 

Meeting: 20/11/2024 - Executive (Item 258)

258 Adoption of Asset Management Plan pdf icon PDF 473 KB

Purpose:

To agree to adopt the Asset Management Strategy to provide a clear strategy for future decision making and investment in the Councils land and property assets.

 

Recommendations:

That the Executive resolves to:

1.    Adopt the Asset Management Strategy attached at Annex A.

2.    Agree that the Council proceeds with the development of Asset Plans for a number of key properties, in line with that Strategy.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Member for Finance introduced the report that looked to agree to adopt the Asset Management Strategy to provide a clear strategy for future decision making and investment in the Councils land and property assets.

 

The Council owned assets totalling £128m. These assets were held principally as either

commercial investments (£51m) to provide services such as Leisure, Waste, Parking or Council Offices (£73m), or as a result of historic ownership, particularly small plots of land (£4m). Recent audit reports had identified significant risks to the Council in managing its Assets without an Asset Management Strategy (AMS) in place.

 

In order to effectively manage this estate, the Council needed to understand its condition so it could plan and budget for pro-active repairs and maintenance and future investment could form part of the decision making on whether an asset was retained, redeveloped or sold. An AMS would provide a strategic approach to property, establishing what the Council wished to achieve from its estate, aligning it with other Council priorities and ensuring decision making was based on clear policy. Decisions on purchasing, investing in or disposing of property would be based on pre-agreed principles to maximise return, reduce expenses and manage risk, enabling a far more strategic approach rather than consideration of individual properties in a piecemeal way.

 

The overarching strategic document would then be complimented by a review of the

Council's assets to consider what future approach should be taken. This would be based on data such as current value, how the property is performing (lease income and return on investment) and broader opportunities to maximise income or in some cases dispose of a financial liability. There is scope to significantly increase the efficiency with which assets are managed by streamlining delegations and decision making based on the adopted strategy and transferring or selling assets that provided no value but take time and money to manage and maintain.

 

The Council used a Procurement Framework to appoint consultants Carter Jonas to

undertake a two-stage process. The first stage was the production of a AMS document.

The second was to undertake a review of key land and property assets held by the Council in line with the Strategy once it has been adopted. Assets will be prioritised, with a focus on those that were underperforming, underutilised or may require significant investment. The Asset Plans produced would guide decision making based on opportunities and costs and may result in subsequent reports coming back to Executive with the Asset Plan, recommending disposal or investment. The draft AMS produced was attached at Annex A.

 

Councillor Alaric Smith proposed that the Executive agree the recommendations as listed on the report. This was seconded by the Deputy Leader of the Council; Executive Member for Economic Development, Councillor Duncan Enright, was put to a vote, and was unanimously agreed by the Executive.

 

The Executive Resolved to:

1. Adopt the Asset Management Strategy attached at Annex A.

2. Agree that the Council proceed with the development of Asset Plans for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 258

 

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