Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources. To be presented by the Cabinet Member for Placemaking and Local Economy

The Cabinet Member for Placemaking and Local Economy introduced the report.

It was explained that the Council owned a broad range of property assets in Haringey, from corporate properties where staff provided services, to our schools' estate, retail units, tenanted industrial estates, and community spaces. As well as being a valued source of income to the Council, and providing social value to our residents, these properties also required significant running and maintenance costs. It was explained that the Council had to ensure that they were managing these assets to the highest standard on behalf of council taxpayers and for the benefit of all residents, and in line with the aspirations set out in the Corporate Delivery Plan.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that the Strategic Assets Management and Property Improvement Plan (SAMPIP) provided the Council with a robust and transparent process to care for these properties in line with statutory regulations, and to make decisions on these assets, including whether to maintain, invest, divest, or repurpose them. It was explained that this second annual update provided Cabinet with a report on the progress made against its objectives. This included the conclusion of the property audit work, the full resourcing of the Capital Projects and Property team, the opening of four family hubs by the end of March 2025, and the approval of the final business case for the refurbishment of the Civic Centre.

It was noted that the Council continually revised and renewed its approach, working alongside the appropriate scrutinising bodies and collaborating across directorates. Several of our outputs and priorities had been achieved through actions implemented in years 1 and 2. Therefore, it was proposed to reduce the number of objectives in the plan from 10 to 6, closing objectives 1, 7, 8, and 9 that had largely been completed, and incorporating any ongoing outputs under these into the remaining objectives to provide more streamlined and efficient reporting.

In response to comments and questions from Cllr Hakata, Cllr das Neves and Cllr Connor, the following information was shared:

• It was explained by officers that there were 630 Properties in the property portfolio that didn’t meet Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) standards. However, it was explained that the role of the Council as the Corporate Landlord would be to assess buildings and determine what actions would need to be taken to understand requirements to improve sustainability. It was noted that EPCs were assessed when a lease comes up for renewal, and it was explained that the Council was working to improve on these wherever possible.
  
  
• It was noted that there was a challenge in managing the different needs of the Council estate and the use of Council buildings. Officers explained that the Council was developing more in this area, and explained that they would like to see more proactivity, and work more with the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector.
  
  
• It was explained that the Council had been successful in securing funding for Family Hub for 2025/26.
  
  

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1. Noted the year two SAMPIP Roadmap updates for each of the ten objectives as set out in Appendix 2: SAMPIP Road Map (Year 2), with specific reference to the delivery of the three core areas that underpinned the SAMPIP as stated below:

1.            Delivery of a Corporate Property Model

2.            Implementation of the Property Improvement Plan that included 46 recommendations from the Property Audits, across three core themed areas of governance, best practice, and people

3.            Work on the Commercial Property Strategy, which continued to assess which properties should be retained, re-invested, divested, or repurposed

2. Agreed to a revised SAMPIP Road Map for Year 3, which set the direction for new priorities and actions for the subsequent SAMPIP years.
   
   
3. Agreed to the closure of objectives 1, 7, 8, and 9, as the outputs and priorities had been achieved through various actions implemented in years 1 and 2. Some existing and ongoing actions were merged with objectives 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10.

Reasons for Decision

The reason for the decision was to determine the future priorities and actions for the six objectives under the revised year three SAMPIP and to streamline reporting requirements to increase efficiency and make savings to contribute to efforts to tackle budgetary pressures.

The approach of assessing and rationalising the corporate and investment portfolio assets continued to deliver capital and revenue savings that were aligned to current and future service delivery requirements.

Alternative Options Considered

The alternative option considered was the do-nothing option. This would have meant the four objectives recommended to be closed would have remained in the SAMPIP Road Map for years 3–5 but would not have had an active action plan. This would not have reflected as clearly the priority areas that the Council needed to focus on.