Agenda item

To consider a motion originally debated by Full Council relating to the Council’s property investment portfolio and to recommend a way forward.

The Committee considered a report setting out a motion relating to the Council’s property investments in Camberley town centre which had been referred to the Committee by Full Council at their meeting on 22^nd July 2020.  The motion had expressed concern about articles in the national press regarding the Council’s property investments, sought information pertaining to the purchase costs of property investments since 2016 and suggested further actions in the event that there had been a significant impairment of book value since the date of a property’s purchase.

It was acknowledged that a number of those involved in the decision to pursue the purchase of the Mall Shopping Centre in 2016 were either no longer employed by the Council or were no longer elected members and there would therefore be little benefit in revisiting their actions at the time.  Notwithstanding this, it was agreed that the concerns that there had been insufficient information available at the time for members to make a fully informed decision on the Mall’s purchase did warrant further investigation and that the information provided in the relevant reports and workshops ought to be reviewed in order to inform future decision making.  It was agreed that a Member Task and Finish Group should be established to review the information available at the time of the decision. It was noted that the membership of Task and Finish Groups should be broadly politically proportionate and it was agreed that members wishing to participate in the Task and Finish Group would forward their names to their Group leaders in the first instance.  

It was clarified that the projected £110,000 cost of the budget required for all stages of the work set out in the Motion was made up of a mix of external consultant costs and officer time.  Of this it was felt that officer time would take up approximately £50,000.  It was suggested that a funding request for up to £40,000 be made to Council to pay for the services of an external consultant to complete a desk top review of the property acquisitions set out in Annex B of the report.

Concern was raised that the documentation relating to the decision to purchase the Mall in 2016 remained exempt leading to a perception that the decision had not be subject to adequate scrutiny.  It was agreed that the possibility of making the documentation public would be followed up with the Monitoring Officer.

 RESOLVED that:

      i.        A Task and Finish Group be established to review the advice provided to members in relation to the purchase of the Mall Shopping Centre.

     ii.        A progress update be given to the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 25^th November 2020 and the next meeting of Full Council.

RECOMMENDED that:

    i.          Full Council be recommended to allocate a budget of up to £40,000 for the provision of an external consultant to complete a desk top review of the property acquisitions set out in Annex B of the report.