Meeting documents

            Meeting: Corporate Scrutiny Sub-Committee (County Hall, Durham - Committee Room 1a - 28/02/2005 10:00:00 AM)

                  Item: A5 Durham County Council Property Estate and Management Issues

         

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Scrutiny Sub-Committee for Corporate Management Issues

28 February 2005

Durham County Council Property Estate and Management Issues

Report of Ken Pearson, Head of Corporate Estates

Introduction

1 This report is intended to provide a brief overview of the Estate, its value and the budgets associated with investment and management.

2 The Estate

Comprises

	2002	2003	2004
Community Centres Social Services properties Libraries Museums Offices/One Stop Shops Waste Disposal Facilities Business Units Business Parks (joint) County Farms (holdings) Schools Green Estate	35 86 38 3 20 4 86 17 49 311 2627 ha	35 84 38 3 20 4 86 17 30 307 2627 ha	33 93 38 3 20 4 86 18 26 304 2626 ha

3 Financial Information

For property, excluding highways

	2003/04	2004/05
Asset Valuation (opening balance)	£486.874m	£457.146
Capital Programme	£48.615	£68.572
Annual Capitalised Maintenance Budget - Condition	£4.152 £5.627	£4.256 -
Annual Revenue Maintenance Budget	£3.18m	£2.87m
Repair and Maintenance Backlog (5-year)	£125m	£144m
Sales Target	£5m p.a.	£5m p.a.
Rental income (approx) figures for previous years	£594,530 pa	£634,509 pa

4 Corporate Asset Management Plan

All Authorities have been required to produce the following documents for the ODPM in the past few years:

Context Statement - a summary of property assets, their value (for accounting purposes), maintenance backlog, capital budgets and the funding sources.

Capital Strategy - a high level document explaining the key issues in the planning and application of capital investment.

The Asset Management Plan - describing the processes, procedures and key issues involved in management of the estate.

These documents can all be viewed on the Internet and Intranet.

There is no longer a requirement to submit these documents to ODPM, but this Authority’s ‘Good’ (i.e. the highest level) rating was taken into consideration There is no longer a requirement to submit these documents to ODPM, but this Authority’s ‘Good’ (i.e. the highest level) rating was taken into consideration in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).

Guidance on the future of Asset Management Planning for local authorities has recently been produced on behalf of the ODPM. A full report on the proposals and the implications for the Authority has been prepared for Cabinet. The main requirements are for the development of:-

It does not appear that the documents themselves will be assessed in future CPAs but it is expected that the processes associated with the planning, review, management and investment in property will need to be demonstrated in the business activity of the Authority.

5 Best Value Review

Property formed an integral part of the Best Value Review of Support Services with the following recommendations produced:

Recommendation PS1
Corporate Property Planning - develop clear long-term plans for property needs across the Authority underpinned by an investment strategy to deliver them.

Recommendation PS2
Corporate initiatives - improve procedures to compile and deliver major corporate/cross cutting initiatives.

Recommendation PS3
Property Management - introduce mechanisms to ensure efficient use of property across the Authority.

Recommendation PS4
The Alliance - introduce improvements to the working of the Alliance.

Recommendation PS5
Support and advice - improve communications, support and advice for property customers e.g. a single help desk for property services.

Recommendation PS6
Costs - set and report upon targets for property and the Alliance with comparison against benchmarks for the industry.

The recommendations reflect the future thinking on Asset Management and improvements in the delivery of property services. Improvements implemented to date include adjustments to the working of the Strategic Alliance (Building), creation of a one-stop-shop for property assistance and advice (as an electronic link at this stage), appointment of a customer support manager and the ongoing restructure of Estates and Building Design Services.

6 Performance Measurement

A range of performance measures is used in assessing property and property service performance

7 Considerations 8 The Future

Emphasis will be placed upon:

Appendix 1: Implications

Finance

N/a

Staffing

N/a

Equality and Diversity

N/a

Accommodation

N/a

Crime and disorder

N/a

Sustainability

N/a

Human rights

N/a

Localities

N/a

Young people

N/a

Consultation

Report for information

Sales pending/ being examined 83

Comprising:



Legal instructed 33



Sales completed

* excludes £8.38m receipts from Phase 1 Avenue site and Phase 1
Nevilles Cross site.

** excludes £11.465m receipts from Phase 2 Avenue site, Phase 2
Nevilles Cross site and Whitworth Park.



Farms to be retained
Total Area: 577.281 hectres

Sales completed
Total Area: 532.4206 hectres




Negotiations in progress for sales to sitting tenants or on the open market

(1) Farms:-
Total Area: 589.3901 hectres

(2) Houses:-

Others
Total Area: 173.185 hectres


Follwing completion of those sales where negotiations are in progress the authority will have 12 County Farms remaining.

The above identifies the main area of the County Farm Estate land holding, however there are peripheral areas such as woodland and allotments which are not included in the above statistics.



Attachments

 Item 5.doc;
 Item 5 (Appendix 2).doc;
 Co. Farms Info.doc