Agenda item

To provide an update to Cabinet of the work of the Investment Board from March 2023 to August 2023. 

Members considered the update on the work of the Investment Board from March 2023 to August 2023 presented by Councillor Boden.

Councillor Boden stated that he had been slightly disappointed by the speed of progress, which has not been as quick as he would like but it has taken time to go through the various processes which have been necessary. He stated that it is still at a stage where the overall likely success or otherwise cannot be judged of the two ongoing projects.

Councillor Boden referred to the objectives, the first one being to realise more by going through this process on these two sites rather than selling them on the open market with no development and secondly to covert as much as possible of the gain on these two sites from capital to revenue. He stated that both of these objectives have progressed and the Council disposed of the sites to Fenland Future Ltd and what Fenland Future Ltd do with the sites will now be what results in the return that the Council gets, with their being financial difficulties over the past couple of years that had not been anticipated not least the effect of the war in Ukraine and it is being seen nationally a definite slow down if not reversal on the private housing market.

Councillor Boden made the point that there was a significant amount of resilience built into the plans and not all the site in Wisbech is for private housing and he believes there is still a very good business case in both sites but it is not known what the position will be economically in six months’ time. He stated that there is no reason to change the plans that the Council has for these two sites.

Councillor Boden referred to the second objective, this has been occurring and it is too early to say how successful this has been but the Council has already, even though a single house has not been built, undertaken the ground work so when the gains come in a significant proportion will be turned from capital to revenue. He feels it paints a picture of something going in the right direction and it makes sense to keep going in that direction.

Members made comments, asked questions and received responses as follows:

·       Councillor Mrs Laws made the point not to put scarers on the market as whilst she acknowledged the property market had slowed down she does not think it is in a position where it is failing.

·       Councillor Miscandlon stated that the only people who seem to be slowing down on their investment are the very large companies that pay massive bonuses to their staff and the smaller and more resilient local companies seem to be doing well and long may they do so.

·       Councillor Boden expressed the view that the potential reduction in return or the risk he particularly had in mind was the level of new house prices and that has been subject to some weakening over the course of the last few months and there may be more to come in the future but the important point he made was the plans that the Council had in place for both sites had a significant amount of leeway and resilience to unexpected events and whilst the Council may not receive as great a return as might have been the case both sites should still perform very well.

Proposed by Councillor Boden, seconded by Councillor Mrs Laws and AGREED to note:

·       the report from the Investment Board; and

·       the ongoing review of the current Commercial and Investment Strategy as determined by the Constitution and delegated to the Section 151 Officer for tabling at a future meeting.

(Councillors Benney, Boden and Tierney declared that they are members of the Investment Board)