Agenda item

To receive an update on Reset & Recovery including on the Building Utilisation and Economy & Regeneration Workstreams.

The Chair introduced the Recovery & Reset Programme Director / Assistant Director, Neighbourhoods who provided an overview of the workstream allocation between the scrutiny committees and highlighted that this Committee would specifically scrutinise the Building Utilisation and Economic Development workstreams.  The presentations from the Assistant Directors would focus on

1.     The structure of their highlight reports and whether these were at the right level of detail for the Committee;

2.     Highlighting key milestones and triggers in their workstreams to help inform the Committee’s work plan.

3.     Inviting questions and feedback to inform the programme.

The Assistant Director, Growth & Regeneration reported that the Economic Development project was split into four workstream areas, the first three of which were linked:

1.     Business Intervention, where the project was looking to establish an economic baseline, which reflects the impacts of the pandemic on the economy of Tamworth, through a desk based data gathering exercise which would allow the Council to make further decisions through the next two workstream areas. 

2.     Economic Recovery & Development, where the project would assess the strategy for economic development and assess whether the priorities were correct, whether we were resourced correctly across the authority and whether activities reflected the impact of the COVID pandemic, which would inform the tailoring of any services.

3.     Town centre regeneration, which involved refreshing the masterplan for the town centre, to make the most to maximise the regeneration of the town centre and to attract inward investment.

4.     Marmion Regeneration, which would focus on Marmion House and the potential regeneration of the site.

In terms of activities, a brief for the baseline had been produced and was ready to go out to tender, which was expected to provide the data required in terms of worklessness, employment levels, salaries and activity.

In terms of the Marmion House regeneration, it was expected that relocation from this site would be between the period April to June 2023.  De-commissioning of the building and timing around regeneration plans coming forward would require arrangements to be put in place to avoid Marmion House adversely impacting on the Town whilst this is progressed.  To support the decision to decant from Marmion House which was made in summer 2021 by Cabinet / Council, some high level feasibility work had been undertaken on the regeneration of the site.  Further feasibility work on what could be delivered on the site was being pursued and was expected to be available at the end of January 2022:

1.      the first piece of work was expected to cover further feasibility of housing led development options, the quantum of development, given neighbouring uses and access

2.     A piece of work in terms of the constraints on the site, including the existence of a sub-station which could impact on development, and an understanding of costs and construction methods. 

The work above would be expected to provide a framework for what could be undertaken on the site and potential costs for such regeneration.  Work in terms of the costs of demolition as a precursor of regeneration was also reported to be in train.

The Committee sought clarifications in the following areas:

1.     the reasons for the targeted decant date of April to June 2023, where the Assistant Director reported that there were significant interdependencies, in terms of looking and securing new sites to locate into and in terms of preparing the Marmion House for future steps.

2.     Whether the Council had reached out to neighbouring properties to consider whether further areas could be included within the project, where it was reported that the initial work had considered a broader area, however, currently the regeneration was focussed on the Marmion house site only.  It was confirmed that the constraints and viability study were not seeking to rule anything out at this stage and details would form part of the Cabinet paper on the 7^th April 2022, now on the forward plan.

The Assistant Director, Assets reported that the Building Utilisation project was split into three workstream areas. 

Work had been undertaken to scope out the Council’s assets and the utilisation of those, where it was reported that, other than in the case of Marmion House, the Council’s space was largely well utilised, and there was not much office or meeting space available.  Discussions were ongoing with our tenants in Marmion House.  In terms of the mast leases on Marmion House there was a formal process to follow involving some specialist advice, and this risk had been identified.

The next phase was to identify potential accommodation to relocate into. Potential premises within the town centre had been identified, but this was at an early stage.  Once a property was identified and negotiations concluded and the lease agreed, take occupation and then start fitting out the site, IT equipment and furniture moved in, staff trained up, ready for an April opening.  There would also then be the decommissioning of the Marmion House site to complete.  There remained interdependencies with the SMART working workstream, which would impact on the space requirements.

The Committee sought clarifications in the following areas:

1.     The type of masts located at Marmion House, where it was confirmed that there were telecoms masts.

2.     The energy efficiency of any new accommodation, where it was reported that we were looking to lease any property and therefore the fabric of the building could influence this, and any fit out would have to meet current regulations and reflect the term of any lease taken.  This would be considered as part of the negotiations with the landlord(s).

3.     The accommodation of the IT infrastructure in any new property and the space required to accommodate that, where the Assistant Director reported that the Head of ICT was involved and the requirement for space was expected to be less given the move to cloud based technology.

4.     Whether we were looking for one site or more than one location and the length of any leases sought, where it was reported that Cabinet had expressed a preference for all our operations to be located in one place, however, this would depend on negotiations, as to whether this was feasible. In terms of the length of the lease the preference was for around 5 years. It was confirmed due to the commercial nature of the negotiations the locations were not disclosed at this point.

5.     The meaning of SMART working, where it was reported that this meant different ways of working, including some home working, hybrid working (which included some working from home and some working from office space) and site workers, which was where such staff could not undertake their work from home.

6.     Financial assumptions utilised for the accommodation requirements, where it was reported that the costs presented to Council in August 2021 were desk based, and would require market testing, and were established on an assumption that the Council would require approximately the equivalent floor space to 2 floors of Marmion House.  These financial assumptions had made some provision for the ICT infrastructure requirement for SMART working.

7.     Premises location, where it was clarified that the Cabinet preference was for a town centre location, however, if there was nothing suitable this could mean that alternative sites would be considered.

8.     With regard to the new buildings being acquired under the Future High Street Fund, including part of Middle Entry, and whether these would become Council assets, where it was clarified that the Council would take interim stewardship before they were repurposed.  Further clarification was sought on what the future use of this area of the site could be, where the Assistant Director Growth & Regeneration reported that the future design for this remained at this point under debate, and would be likely to be a flexible space managed by the Council and could include entrepreneurial activity and potential links with the college and would be run commercially.

The Chair reported that he would like to see these reports on a quarterly basis, and that at appropriate times would be considered confidentially.