Agenda item

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services.

The Senior Property Surveyor presented the bi-annual report of the Council’s Asset Management Plan for the Group to review and assess all of the Council’s commercial property portfolio, how individual properties are performing and what the expectations are for the next five to ten years in terms of income and cost.

Since the last review the Group were advised, the Council has completed the construction of Bingham Enterprise Centre, 12 self-contained offices within the centre all currently being let to small businesses, showing the demand for high quality office space.

The Senior Property Surveyor informed the Group that the Council has recently had a new draft Energy Performance Certificate, (EPC) recalculations for all of its properties. This has indicated there will be a number of changes to the EPC ratings for the Council’s property portfolio, the majority of which have improved, thus reducing the risk.

The Group noted the property portfolio also includes car parks, mast sites and land which were not included in this review. It was also noted the report did not cover the Council’s community buildings or the Council’s operational estate e.g. the Arena. The focus of the report is on the commercial property which is leased to businesses.

The Senior Property Surveyor advised that to facilitate the review a detailed spreadsheet has been produced and completed by both the property team and finance. Information on each property includes the following information:

·       Value (current and projected 2028)

·       Rent (current and projected 2028)

·       Yield

·       Estimated Refurbishment/Upgrade costs (over 10 years)

·       Lease length

·       Age of Asset

·       EPC Rating

·       Risk Rating

A summary table and graph were produced from the spreadsheet in Appendix A and B of the report to provide the Group with a ‘at a glance’ view of the commercial property portfolio.

In concluding the Group were informed the situation with commercial property can change relatively quickly, but through the ongoing monitoring of the Council’s assets this is not anticipated to cause significant challenges over the coming months. In addition, it is important that Councillors are kept informed of the property portfolio. Any potential commercial property disposals are reported through Cabinet and reflected in the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy approved at Full Council.

Councillor Regan asked why the two Arenas at West Bridgford and Bingham were not included in the review and when and at which scrutiny Group would the Council’s leisure centres be scrutinised. It was noted that Leisure centres are classified as operational and would be scrutinised on their performance via Finance and Performance reporting to Cabinet and Corporate Overview Group.

Questions were raised about the energy performance of some of the properties and had the Council considered adding solar panels and whether there are opportunities to acquire any external funding to make improvements. The Senior Property Surveyor explained that there are multiple tenants, and this would be difficult to manage. The Director – Finance and Corporate Services added officers were looking at funding schemes to improve the energy performance at Cotgrave Leisure Centre.

A question was raised in respect of land at Candleby Lane, Cotgrave and the issue around subletting. The Senior Property Surveyor explained that Rushcliffe Borough Council owned the land and Nottinghamshire County Council sublet the building, officers were looking at options to be reported to Cabinet.

It was RESOLVED that the Governance Scrutiny Group note the review of the of the Council’s commercial property portfolio with both the review and any other comments from the Group being reported to Cabinet.