Issue - meetings

UPDATE ON HARKNESS COURT

Meeting: 19/03/2024 - Cabinet Sub-Committee (Local Authority Trading Companies' Shareholder) (Item 50)

50 TRADING COMPANY UPDATE - PART 1 PDF 325 KB

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – ENTERPRISE

The purpose of this report is to provide the Cabinet Sub Committee (Local Authority Trading Companies’ Shareholder) an update on the progress that has been made and to seek approval to commence trading of Broadwater Hundred Property Management Limited so Harkness Court can be let.

Decision:

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Sub-Committee (Local Authority Trading Companies Shareholder):

(1) Approved the updated financial projections of the business case and commence trading of Broadwater Hundred Property Management Limited and Broadwater Hundred Limited.

(2) Delegated authority to the Service Director – Resources (as Client Lead Officer for the Company), in consultation with the Chair of this Committee to:

· Agree a loan and a loan amount that will be loaned to either Broadwater Hundred Ltd or Broadwater Hundred Property Management Limited by the Council.

· If required, agree an onward loan to Broadwater Hundred Property Management Limited.

· Agree that the loans will be governed through a loan agreement, which may give flexibility to each Company to draw-down funds as they are required.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: To enable the Council companies to trade and provide more commercial opportunities which will benefit the Council.

Minutes:

Audio recording – 28 minutes 52 seconds

The Service Director – Enterprise presented the report entitled ‘Trading Company Update – Part 1’ and advised that:

· This report was to update Members of the current position with the business case of Broadwater Hundred Ltd and Broadwater Hundred Property Management Ltd which had originally been approved in November 2021, but due to delays in completing Harkness Court the companies had not commenced trading.

· The Council would lease Harkness Court to Broadwater Hundred Limited as the holding company who would then lease the property to Broadwater Hundred Property Management Limited to lease the flats to tenants.

· As this business case had taken longer than anticipated, a new business case and updated financial projections had been required and these were detailed in Part 2 of the report.

· Key legal documents and the Articles of Association needed to put in place before the company would be ready to trade.

· The financial implications and details of responsibility for leasing the flats in Harkness Court was outlined in Section 10 of the report.

· Broadwater Hundred Property Management Limited required a loan to enable them to have enough funds in place to commence leasing the flats.

In response to a question from Councillor Ian Albert, the Service Director – Enterprise advised that the timeline of approximately eight weeks from now would enable enough time for everything to be in place for the company to commence trading.

Councillor Keith Hoskins proposed and Councillor Alistair Willoughby seconded and, following a vote, it was: