Agenda item

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR - COMMERCIAL

The purpose of this report is for Cabinet to consider and adopt the proposed North Hertfordshire District Council Commercial Strategy 2019-23, which sets out the strategic direction for the Council’s commercial services over the next five years.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

(1)       That, subject to the inclusion of amended requirements regarding wider Member input into commercial activities, the North Hertfordshire District Council Commercial Strategy 2019-23 be adopted.

REASON FOR DECISION:

To ensure there is a clear strategy that identifies how the Council understands commercialisation and what the Council is doing to embed a commercial culture.

Audio recording -  Session 1 – 20:53pm (I hour 5 minutes)

The report of the Service Director (Commercial) set out the proposed North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) Commercial Strategy 2019-23, which detailed the strategic direction for the Council’s commercial services over the next five years.

The report gave the case for a commercial strategy, and the need to generate additional income from services that were allowed to assist in subsidising discretionary services and the need to change to a culture than thought commercially. In addition it provided an overview of the Council’s current financial position and the need to improve the annual revenue net position which was currently estimated between £0.7m and £1.9m by 2022/23.

There was a lengthy session of questions in which the following Members took part:

Councillor Steve Jarvis

Councillor Sam Collins

Councillor Kate Aspinwall

Councillor Martin Stears-Handscomb

Councillor Simon Harwood

Councillor Helen Oliver

Councillor Gerald Morris

Councillor Ian Albert

The following points were raised by Members:

·                Risks would need to be fully considered.

·                Whether the Council could in principle borrow to invest.

·                Timescales would need to be more detailed, as some commercial activities would produce returns more quickly than others.

·                An indication of KPIs for the business cases would be useful in the strategy.  

·                The investment that had gone into creating the Commercial team would need overview in terms of the cost of recruitment and targets.

·                The timescales outlined in the strategy were up until March 2021, and a further detailed hierarchy of actions would be needed to make the strategy tangible.

·                Although income generation was the principle aim of the strategy, social benefit and social values ought to be embedded in the strategy as well. 

·                It was important that the Council’s breakeven services were protected.

The Service Director (Commercial) responded and Members noted that:

·                The detail of each commercial activity would be provided in a business case and not in the strategy, which would include risks, KPIs, timescales, details on return on investments as part of a scoring matrix.

·                Officers would be researching the commercial activities of other Councils and sharing best practice. All business cases would follow the Council’s approval process and therefore could be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee prior to consideration by the Sub-Committee or Cabinet.

·                The Commercial Team would engage with other teams within the Council, encourage them to think commercially and put together business cases (such as income from parks, providing legal and IT support to other Councils improving technology or more long term projects such as a solar farm).

·                The Commercial Team consisted of the Service Director, two Commercial Support Officers and were in the process of recruiting a Commercial Manager and Officer.

·                The success or failure of the Commercial Team would be measured and brought back to the sub-committee of the Cabinet.

·                The success or failure of certain business plans would also be brought back to the sub-committee of the Cabinet.

·                Additional income would help safeguard “break even” and non-statutory services.

Members then highlighted that it was inappropriate for Cabinet to use just the sub-committee and as best practice it would need to be more inclusive. It was proposed that Cabinet work with Overview and Scrutiny Committee to establish a cross party task and finish group so that expertise was fully utilised. 

It was then moved by Councillor Martin Stears-Handscomb and seconded by Councillor Steve Jarvis and 

AGREED (unanimously).

In addition the Chairman requested that the Member for the Corporate Plan was made aware for the Commercial Strategy and any potential impact regarding the Councils statutory and non-statutory functions and the potential need for further safeguarding. 

The Executive Member advised the Committee that:

·                The Cabinet would provide information to the sub-committee on commercialisation project board and would share issues raised.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

(1)       That, subject to the inclusion of amended requirements regarding wider Member input into commercial activities, the North Hertfordshire District Council Commercial Strategy 2019-23 be adopted.

REASON FOR DECISION:

To ensure there is a clear strategy that identifies how the Council understands commercialisation and what the Council is doing to embed a commercial culture.