To receive any announcements from the Leader.
Minutes:
The Leader made the following announcements:
“Thank you, Mr Mayor. Firstly Congratulations to Councillor John Kavanagh and his fiancée Kayleigh on their recent engagement.
End of Year Report to Council December 2016
This has I believe been a historic and transformational year in the history of Spelthorne. Upon being elected as Leader I promised we would hit the ground running - we did.
Towards a Sustainable Future
We immediately met staff and Unions and reassured them of our positive future plans. We aimed to improve morale and I hope we have succeeded. Under the direction of Councillor Colin Barnard, we resurrected Towards a Sustainable Future which had been stalled for 3 months by my predecessor, at a cost of about £35,000. Barring some appointments at Deputy Group Head level, staff restructure has now been completed, currently saving about £147,000 per annum.
Throughout the last 10 months we have worked tirelessly to improve staff morale and the relationship between staff and us, holding several staff meetings. Following a political cabinet agreement, we have given political support to the Head of Paid Service to returning to Local Pay negotiation. I understand the Unions are very happy and this should assist staff retention. We continue to have regular meetings with staff.
Corporate Plan
Early on we finalised a new Corporate Plan which had lapsed at the end of December 2015. Our Corporate Priorities are:
· Housing
· Economic Development
· A Clean and Safe Environment, and
· Financial Stability of the Council - without this the other objectives would not be achievable
Cross Party working
We have sought to engage constructively with Lib Dem and Labour members and have received positive support for our initiatives in return. Unfortunately, our new local party, the Spelthorne Residents Independence Party, have chosen not to positively engage with us. I think this is detrimental to those who elected them.
I am grateful for Lib Dem and Labour support in areas which have benefitted
Spelthorne.
Landlord Rent Guarantee Scheme
In May, we launched our new initiative to support landlords and encourage them to let to our tenants – the Landlords Rent Guarantee Scheme. We now have the first landlords signed up and the scheme is active. This will benefit those in need of decent accommodation in our Borough.
Lord Lieutenant
In May, we welcomed the Lord Lieutenant, Michael More-Molineux, to the Borough and he was very impressed. So impressed he also joined us for the Mayor's Civic Service.
Spelride buses
In October, we took delivery of four new Spelride buses which are greatly appreciated and a real benefit to, in particular, our less mobile residents.
Business lmprovement District
In November, a referendum was held amongst Staines businesses who voted by a very significant margin in support of the introduction of a Business lmprovement District in Staines. This will create a bonus of some £1.5m over five years for Town Centre improvements.
Economic Development
To reflect our location and aspirations towards economic development we established a new Economic Development committee under the chairmanship of Councillor Colin Davis, famous for adding the "upon Thames" to Staines, to examine how we can best further the economic and business development in Spelthorne.
Following from that we have recently launched our new corporate tag line -
"Spelthorne Means Business".
Heathrow Expansion
I was personally delighted when the Government recently announced the replacement of the former 07/23 runway (which was closed in the 1990s). This is excellent news for the local economy and will have a massive benefit to our residents, in particular the 3,600 who work directly at Heathrow, as well as the thousands more who rely indirectly upon it, and those who will in future work there.
We are also working closely with Labour controlled Slough who have a very similar recognition of the crucial impact Heathrow has on their Borough. I am of course mindful of noise, pollution, road and rail concerns but also vividly recall aircraft of 20 or so years ago which used to create much more noise and pollution. We will nevertheless be working with Heathrow to see that they honour their commitments in these areas.
Joint Committee
We are making progress towards moving from the Surrey orientated Local Committee towards a Joint Committee which is expected to finally give us a say in spending on roads, education etc.
There has also been a lot of time and effort expended into looking to see if we, as part of Surrey, should become part of a devolved administration, known as 3SC which also includes East and West Sussex. This is currently still under consideration.
Property
Back in March we sought to buy Dolphin House for conversion to 75 flats but were gazumped at the last minute. Since then I have implemented a strict "need to know" policy to reduce the risk of re-occurrences.
In May, we agreed the purchase of Harpers Hotel which is in process of being upgraded and continues to be used for emergency housing, but now just for the needs of Spelthorne. Once completed this is likely to benefit us in the region of £230k per annum as well as help homeless local families and provide more emergency accommodation locally.
We are finalising plans for the Bugle site. This will involve demolishing it and rebuilding probably 12 flats that will be retained for long term investment. We are also working on plans to see if it is practicable to turn the rear area including the lakes into a small country park.
In June, we started the process that culminated in the purchase of the main part of the BP Campus, the largest property investment by a UK local authority and the site is the biggest privately owned business park in the UK. As we all know the net revenue benefit is in the region of £3.3m per annum, money that we now have available to protect services and put back into the community. This of course has been the high point of our year.
This was a ground breaking transaction and is being cited as an example of innovation and best practice across the UK. Many are envious of our achievement.
I am delighted to announce that last Thursday we completed on the remaining section of the BP site, the South West Corner. This will add a further £730knet revenue benefit.
We have today exchanged (or we expect tomorrow to exchange) on an officebuilding in Sunbury which will contribute a further £320k net revenue benefitper year.
We are currently exploring two further possible purchases. We are aiminghigh, and our objective is to secure investments that will generate a minimumof £5m net revenue income per year by the end of the financial year.
My final property related announcement concerns Bridge St. There was a "long stop" date for completion of this sale, of 31stOctober 2016. The purchaser, Bellway, failed to complete then and were subsequently served a notice to complete which expired at midnight last night. They have not confirmed their intent to complete and therefore the sale is off. I know different members have different views on this but in the New Year we will be applying ourselves to reassessing matters and deciding on the best route forward.
There is in fact one more ‘hot off the press’ item; I learnt 3 hours ago that we have let 45,000 sq ft of the former BHS shop site in the Elmsleigh Centre to Primark, who will be spending £7m refitting it ready to re-open in September 2017.
We are facing a large Government revenue support grant cut and this positive and decisive action means we can continue to protect and offer the services we are elected to provide. A £3.2m cut to a budget is a vast gap that we have now covered. Furthermore as we took early action we now have a small surplus for a year or so.
We are looking ahead and planning for the future. We foresee further cuts in 3-4 years from now of about £1.8m per annum and are acting now to prepare. We have already covered much of this cost with new property acquisitions and expect that, by the end of the next calendar year, we will have done enough to cover these costs fully. Again, protecting our community from cuts because of our entrepreneurial, caring Conservative approach.
If Towards a Sustainable Future is about securing the financial self-sufficiency of Spelthorne by 2020, we will achieve that goal well ahead of target, thus securing the financial security of our community for a generation.
As I have just stated, we have an objective of achieving property investments that will generate £5m per annum of net revenue benefit by the end of this financial year, and with completion of the Sunbury office, will have reached £4.2m of that. Our much improved financial position has given us much greater confidence and boldness.
Windfall Grant
As mentioned we currently have a small window of opportunity having covered some of the Government cuts in advance of their imposition. I was delighted that we have so quickly moved to a position where we are able to offer a one-off windfall grant of £20,000 per ward as a result of the BP deal. It is great that we are able to give something back to our residents. As a guideline, I anticipate this being for capital projects of community benefit and to be able to "see" it in two years' time, and to be for general community benefit.
Summary - Thanks
As I am sure you all agree we have achieved a lot in the last 10 months and I want to thank you all for your hard work and support. It would not have been possible without you all. This has been a truly team effort.
In summary we have:
· Staff restructure and saved £147,000
· Restored staff morale and confidence
· lntroduced our Key Corporate Plan
· Developed Cross Party working
· Rent Guarantee
· Spelride Buses
· Business Improvement District
· Economic Development
· Heathrow Support
· Joint Committee
· Achieved much with regard to property not least generating £4.2m of net revenue benefit per year and in turn plugged our revenue support grant gap
· Re-let the BHS site
· lntroduced a windfall grant of £20,000 per ward
I have to thank in particular Councillor Harman, my deputy, Councillor Williams our finance portfolio holder, the rest of my Cabinet and Councillor Mooney, our Group Chairman.
I would also like to thank Spelthorne Conservative Association Chairman Mike
Brennan for his unstinting support and guidance.
We have also had massive and crucial support from so many staff, without whom this would not have been possible. I cannot finish without thanking my good friend the Chief Executive Roberto Tambini. Our close working relationship and his hard work, counsel and advice throughout 2016 has been absolutely fundamental to our successes this year.
I am very much looking forward to continuing to lead our successful administration throughout 2017. We know there will be challenges to surmount but we are in a very strong position, and united we will succeed. I believe that this is a great time to be a resident of Spelthorne and our future is bright under this Conservative administration led by myself and team.
Finally I would like to wish everyone a very happy and blessed Christmas and successful 2017.