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Interim Assets Disposal Strategy

Meeting: 18/02/2021 - Cabinet (Item 20)

20 Interim Assets Disposal Strategy pdf icon PDF 586 KB

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal, Councillor Stuart King and Cabinet Member for Resources & Financial Governance, Councillor Callton Young

Officer: Executive Director Place, Shifa Mustafa

Key decision: yes

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal informed Members that budget preparations were well underway, as had been discussed at a meeting of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee earlier that week. Three objectives were at the heart of the budget preparation; strengthening financial discipline to ensure the council lived within its means, ensuring the delivery of the best quality services which the council can afford, and limiting liabilities with a particular focus on property and assets. In relation to the last objective, the Cabinet Member stated that the report was an essential step towards achieving that goal.

 

It was noted that the council fully accepted the need to review all of the assets it owned and undertake asset disposal so as to reduce its borrowing requirement and focus on core business. To that end, an Interim Assets Disposal Strategy had been developed to support that work and covered commercial assets, such as the Croydon Park Hotel, and surplus operational sites. The Cabinet Member stated the Strategy would, in combination with the Corporate Asset Management Plan, ensure the best use of the council’s assets and complement the Capital Programme and the Medium Term Financial Strategy which were due to be considered at the following Cabinet meeting.

 

Following consideration by the Scrutiny & Overview Committee the report and Strategy had been updated in line with recommendations from the Committee including; ensuring ward councillors and Cabinet Members were consulted at the outset of the consideration of a disposal, the initial tranche of disposals were included in the Part A report, and additional information in terms of options considered for possible uses of Croydon Park Hotel had been included.

 

In terms of the options, including emergency and temporary accommodation, which had been considered in relation to the Croydon Park Hotel the Cabinet Member informed Members that he had seen the business case assessment for those options and was in agreement with the officer judgement that it would not be affordable and therefore viable option. To that end, the Cabinet Member highlighted the recommendation to appoint a tier one agent to prepare a marketing strategy and subject to approval manage a sales process for the Croydon Park Hotel with a report to Cabinet in September 2021.

 

The Cabinet Member noted that Members had raised that it was important that the council achieved best consideration whilst balancing the current economic climate with the timing of the disposals. It was noted by the Cabinet Member that achieving best consideration could be achieved by securing planning permissions on sites to add value to the asset. Additionally, he noted that Members had queried whether community led initiatives could be considered for the sites. The Interim Director of Homes & Social Investments advised Members that the approach to best consideration was set out as sections 6 and 7 of the report, which would include robust business cases. The process, it was confirmed, would include early consultation with ward councillors and Cabinet Members.

 

The Interim Director advised Members that the programme had been structured with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20