Agenda item

Mr D Sturrock, Head of Property made a presentation on the way in which the Authority dealt with property.  He felt that this presentation was quite pertinent given the recent revelations in relation to the way in which Liverpool City Council dealt with land and property.  He also wanted to give the Committee an assurance that Barnsley’s approach to property was well embedded prior to those revelations being highlighted.

The presentation covered the following key areas:

·         Key areas

o   Asset valuation – was all undertaken by RICS valuers who complied with Global Standards 2017 (Red Book Global Standards) and the RICS Valuation Global Standards 2017 - UK National Supplement

o   Disposals – were based on the principles of Best Consideration Section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972

o   Acquisitions – adopted a similar approach to the above.  The authority had to demonstrate if there was a strategic need to acquire sites/properties and there had to be a best consideration with regard to that

o   Asset Transactions – possibly the most contentious area.  Any ‘large’ transactions would be submitted via Cabinet, but other transactional work would not. 

o   A Property and Asset Management Governance Group had been established on the 1^st April 2021 to deal with sites and property issues

·         Property and Asset Governance Group- aimed to provide clear unambiguous governance arrangements and appropriate controls to facilitate all land and property discussions

o   The Group was chaired by the Head of Property and comprised colleagues including the Strategic Finance Manager and the Head of Assets

o   Every single land and property transaction that the Council was about to undertake was discussed in detail at the Group and this allowed appropriate check and challenge.  These decisions were documented and recorded, and this avoided any ambiguity or confusion at a later date.  Matter discussed included

§  Rent reviews, Lease and Licence Renewals

§  Community Asset Transfers

§  Decisions to hold over

§  Concessions

§  Surrender Disposals

§  Strategic approach to negotiations

§  Funding Bids

§  Lease determination and forfeiture

§  FM – moves in/out

§  FM – works to buildings

In the ensuing discussion the following matters were highlighted:

·         Reference was made to the Red Book valuations for land an buildings which included a Covid 19 uncertainty.  It was understood that the RICS guidance had been amended and the blanket material uncertainty was not expected to be included this year.  The Head of Property commented, however, that the market was still volatile, and it was likely that quite a few assumptions would have to be made for all valuations and these would have to be clearly stated

·         The new requirement for all property transactions was that they would be discussed at the Property and Asset Governance Group and any transactions dealt with outside that process would be a clear breach of council procedure and would not be documented.  The Head of Property could not think, however, of a situation where that would occur.  The Service Director Finance reported that appropriate controls were in place to ensure that such actions did not occur

·         There were certain extreme circumstances when the process could be shortened and, in these instances, an individual assessment would be made, however, the aim was to prevent this ever needing to happen.  Any decision would, however, still be documented appropriately

·         In response to specific questioning the Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance commented that every aspect of governance would feature in audit consideration.  The Property and Asset Management Governance Group had been established with input from Internal Audit and the operation of that Group would feature in a future audit at an appropriate time

RESOLVED that the presentation be received and Mr D Sturrock, Head of Property, be thanked for attending the meeting and for answering members questions