Issue - meetings

(i)             to note that the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord would provide information to Members outwith the meeting on the number of staff in the Corporate Landlord cluster and the current level of vacancies in each area;

(ii)            to note that the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord would provide a report to Committee in two cycles detailing the progress on the audit recommendations, including detail on which matters were related to available budget and which were in relation to the updating and reviewing of procedures; and

(iii)          to otherwise note the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Internal Auditor which  presented the planned Internal Audit report on Corporate Landlord Responsibilities.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee review, discuss and comment on the issues raised within the report and the attached appendix.

In response to a question as to whether officers were in agreement with the findings of the audit, the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord noted that management had accepted the recommendations made. 

In response to a question relating to the budget for Corporate Landlord, and the fact that the spend on the budget for 2024/25 had been more than 50% over budget, the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord advised that the audit related to statutory compliance work, but that the budget also covered essential repair and maintenance work, as well as capital work and replacement work.  He explained that historically the spend had been approximately 50% on planned maintenance and 50% on reactive maintenance, however due to the construction cost inflation over the last few years, the statutory responsibility work had been undertaken first with less work on planned maintenance, which he acknowledged carried its own risk.  This resulted in a portfolio which generally needed more work, and the current target given to the Corporate Landlord was to maintain buildings at a condition C rating until the size of the portfolio could be reduced.  He explained that the service had ongoing discussions with Finance colleagues about essential spend outwith statutory responsibility work, and the budget provision was being reviewed at present. 

In response to safety issues raised and whether there was an acceptable level of risk, and if not, how much budget was required to address the issues, the Chief Officer – Finance noted that although the budget for the last year had been £3.3m, the spend had been £5m, which highlighted that extra spend had been allocated to address certain issues.  The Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord added for the assurance of Members that the statutory compliance work instructed had been undertaken, but the report highlighted that there were some areas where there were higher costs.  He gave an example of a contractor who has been instructed to undertake work, but when statutory checks had been undertaken, further work was found to be required which then needed to be organised and undertaken.  As certification was not done until the end of that process, this could sometimes take 6 to 8 weeks, therefore in the case of a June 2024 certificate, the June 2025 certificate might not be available until August or September due to the additional work required.  The Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord further explained that much of the issue stemmed from contract management, and work was underway to look at consolidating external contracts which would mean that more officers could manage fewer contracts, allowing better use of resources. 

In response to a question about the level of staffing within the service, the Executive Director Corporate Services advised that the organisation would always carry  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10