Agenda item

The report was introduced by the Chief Executive and presented the annual review of the Commercial Delivery Plan agreed in November 2015 by Council.  It also summarised future themes as a result of reviews in December 2016, when the Commercial Director role was discontinued to focus management roles and therefore resources, on delivery themes now that the Commercial Plan and future business plans had been established over 2016.  Those themes were, External Funding, Commercial Investments Portfolio, Commercial Community Projects (such as Leisure Provision), Growth and Regeneration, and continued development of Commercial capability.

The Commercial Delivery Plan for 2016/17 was appended to the report and outlined future themes and governance arrangements.  A list of achievements and progress was also highlighted.  The Commercial Delivery Plan for the year was approved in November 2015 by Council as part of its annual process of delivery for the Commercial Plan, and a Commercial Member Steering Group was established to provide advice, challenge and steer to shape key decisions that come to Committee. Examples of achievements were listed.

The Terms of Reference need to be reviewed by Committee and recommendations made, taking into account the overall direction for Commercial Plan priorities and governance matters such as risk management and Member conflict.

Independent advice had been deployed to provide assessments of proposed decisions for projects such as the hotel, town centre, joint venture procurement etc.  A review of governance of programmes, roles and procedures, would be the subject of a future report as relevant, once those reviews had identified further improvements needed.  The report sought to assure the Committee that the Chief Executive was undertaking the second line of assurance as part of her duties to inform Council’s third line of assurance, Members and External Audit.

The future themes were based on the key delivery priorities and business cases decided in the Council’s Commercial Plan. The proposed themes had now been organised based on individual strategic responsibilities at an officer level and for assurance to Committee and Council on the resource allocation and roles to ensure delivery.

The report set out the Key themes, Strategic Manager Trading and Environmental Operations.

Trading included services such as: Trade Waste; Surestaff – agency staff for seasonal work; Leisure Centres and Trinity Arts.

The key Community Commercial Projects were set out as being Leisure Centre Services Procurement and future provision at nil subsidy by Council and Community projects that had social as well as commercial benefits as the basis for the business case decision.

Key programmes of Growth and Regeneration work are, the Gainsborough Regeneration programme that included:

• Housing Zone Sites

• Urban extensions

• Town Centre Joint Venture

• Hotel Development

• Heritage and Public Realm

• The Gateway site

The Commercial Investment Portfolio focussed on increasing the Council’s Commercial Land and Property portfolio in order to generate a return (revenue) that would address reductions in overall revenue budget due to cuts in Government grants.

Members welcomed the report and noted that it was good to have a Direction of Travel, as in the future it was important to have more responsibility for the Council’s own funding instead of reliance on the government.  Members felt that the Commercial Member Steering Group was a useful forum even though not a decision making body, and that it was good to have regular reports to both policy committees.

The Chief Executive highlighted the thorough risk assessment within the report and emphasised that whilst this was a considered proposal it was not without commercial risk. This was recognised by Cllrs Regis and Duguid but supported as a necessary action to support the Authority’s revenue budget.

The paragraph numbering in recommendation 2 was corrected, and Members felt that paragraph 6 of the Terms of Reference should be clarified as Cllr Kinch had been appointed for his expertise rather than that he was a member of the Challenge and Improvement Committee.  Any references within the Terms of Reference to the Commercial Director would be updated to the Director of Economic and Commercial Growth.

The recommendations within the report were moved, seconded and voted upon.

RESOLVED that:

a)    the Commercial Delivery Plan review be approved;

b)    having given consideration to the future governance as outlined in Section 4.3 and 4.4 of the report, the Chief Executive be delegated to work with the Chairman of Corporate Policy and Resources Committee and Councillor Bierley, on reviewing the Terms of Reference; and

c)    the future delivery themes as outlined in the report be approved.