Agenda item

To consider whether Cabinet’s decision of 16th December 2016 to sell the Council’s office site at Weeley, once vacated, is still the best use of the site in achieving the goals of the Council, or whether the site should be used to deliver new homes including new, high quality Council Housing and hence to:-

(a)   appropriate the land at the of the Council’s office site at Weeley for planning purposes, which will facilitate the carrying out of housing development; and

(b)   agree to the principle of disposing part of the site, at best consideration, for development to be secured on the whole site, including the part to be retained by the Council.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    agrees that the Council’s office site at Weeley, once vacated by the Authority, is no longer required for the purposes for which it is currently held and should be used instead for development to deliver new homes including new, high quality Council Housing;

(b)    formally appropriates the land including the Council’s office site at Weeley for planning purposes, which will facilitate the carrying out of housing development;

(c)    agrees to the principle of disposing of part of the site, at best consideration, and subject to planning permission, for development to be secured on the whole site, including the part retained by the Council;

(d)    acknowledges that any legal agreement for redevelopment of the land will require specified works relating to the construction of Council housing and therefore, grants an exemption under the Council’s Procurement Procedure Rules for the procurement of such construction works; and

(e)    subject to best consideration being demonstrated / secured and meeting the requirements set out within the Housing Acquisitions and Development Policy, the Leader of the Council, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing, the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery), the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer, be authorised to make the necessary decisions to enable the Heads of Terms to be agreed, the necessary consents to be obtained and legal agreements to be entered into within the principles established within this report.

Earlier on in the meeting Councillor G V Guglielmi had declared a Personal Interest in relation to this item. He thereupon withdraw from the meeting at this juncture and took no part in Cabinet’s consideration and decision making on this matter.

Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Leader of the Council (A.2) in order to decide whether its decision of 16^th December 2016 to sell the Council’s office site at Weeley, once vacated, was still the best use of the site in achieving the goals of the Council, or whether the site should be used to deliver new homes including new, high quality Council Housing and hence to:

(a)    appropriate the land at the Council’s office site at Weeley for planning purposes, which would facilitate the carrying out of housing development; and

(b)    agree to the principle of disposing of part of the site, at best consideration, for development to be secured on the whole site, including the part to be retained by the Council.

Cabinet was aware that the disposal of the Council’s office site at Weeley (“the Weeley site”) was a key part of the Council’s Office Transformation programme.  Disposal of the Weeley site would reduce ongoing revenue costs and would reduce the Council’s emissions.

The Cabinet had agreed “Basic Rationalisation” as the preferred option for Office Transformation proposals at its meeting held on 16 December 2016, which had included selling the Weeley site. The Chief Executive had then signed off a business case based on the option agreed by Cabinet on 14 September 2017.

The essence of those business case proposals was to improve efficiency services and facilities by:

·           Facilitating flexible working;

·           Making more services and information available electronically;

·           Extending buildings at Barnes House and refurbishing other offices at Pier Avenue and at the Town Hall; and

·           Disposing of facilities at Westleigh House, Clay Hall and the Weeley site.

The Office Transformation project was primarily aimed at service improvement and ongoing revenue savings.

Members were informed that the bulk of those measures were now in place with the final phase of the project at the Town Hall nearly completed and the remodelling of the Council’s office building in Pier Avenue had been completed.

In preparation for the vacation of the Weeley site, officers had invited bids for the disposal of the site from two identified potential “Special Purchasers”.

Cabinet was advised that the RICS Valuation – Global Standards of 31 January 2020 defined a Special Purchaser as: “A particular buyer for whom a particular asset has a special value because of advantages arising from its ownership that would not be available to other buyers in a market.” Special Value was defined as: “An amount that reflects particular attributes of an asset that are only of value to a special purchaser.”

The potential Special Purchasers identified had been:

·      a builder/developer with controlling interests in land adjoining the site on three sides (the fourth was adopted highway); and

·      the housing partnership set up by Essex County Council with the objective of working with other public bodies in order to facilitate efficiency in the public estate and the creation of additional housing within Essex.

In order to validate whether offers from the potential Special Purchasers represented “Special Value”, officers and the Council’s appointed professional valuer, had carried out additional soft market testing.  In addition, one of the original bidders had made an improved offer.

In this case, the bids received had included alternatives to cash consideration in the form of the retention by the Council of some homes to be constructed on the site.  The consideration of any proposals would involve not taking a capital receipt for the General Fund, but to allow homes to be constructed for the benefit of the Housing Revenue Account.

It was felt that the soft market testing had demonstrated that open marketing or disposing at auction was potentially advisable if the Council were to seek an entirely financial consideration for the site.  Alternatively, the Council could appropriate land for any purpose for which the Council was authorised.  Consequently, the Weeley site could be appropriated for planning purposes, which would facilitate the carrying out of development which was likely to contribute to the economic, social or environmental well-being of the area, or which was required in the interests of the proper planning of the area in which the land was situated.

Cabinet was reminded that this site had been allocated for housing within Section 2 of the Local Plan, which the Planning Inspector had recently confirmed was sound and could be adopted. Delivering additional Council homes was a priority established through the Council’s approved Corporate Plan and Housing Strategy. The Council had been undertaking the transformation and relocation of its services delivered from the Weeley site for some time, accelerated through the pandemic with many services being delivered on-line and remotely, therefore the public need within the locality for the existing use had reduced considerably with the offices being closed to the public for over 20 months.  The criteria for planning purposes was therefore clearly met.

Once appropriated, it was recommended that, subject to planning permission being obtained, part of the land should be disposed for private residential development, with part being retained and developed as council housing.  Such an arrangement must ensure the Council received “best consideration”, and therefore detailed heads of terms would need to be negotiated and legal agreements entered into in order to ensure the necessary development delivered the Council’s priorities.  Once endorsed by Cabinet, the Leader of the Council would make the necessary decisions, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Officers, within the principles established within this report.

In addition, prior to the occupation of the Council housing, it would be necessary for Cabinet to appropriate the land for housing purposes and at that time, the relevant accounting requirements could be undertaken following the requisite decisions.

Having duly considered all of the information and advice contained in the Leader of the Council’s report and in order to enable this matter to be progressed to a satisfactory conclusion:-

It was moved by Councillor Stock OBE, seconded by Councillor P B Honeywoodand:

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    agrees that the Council’s office site at Weeley, once vacated by the Authority, is no longer required for the purposes for which it is currently held and should be used instead for development to deliver new homes including new, high quality Council Housing;

(b)    formally appropriates the land including the Council’s office site at Weeley for planning purposes, which will facilitate the carrying out of housing development;

(c)    agrees to the principle of disposing of part of the site, at best consideration, and subject to planning permission, for development to be secured on the whole site, including the part retained by the Council;

(d)    acknowledges that any legal agreement for redevelopment of the land will require specified works relating to the construction of Council housing and therefore, grants an exemption under the Council’s Procurement Procedure Rules for the procurement of such construction works; and

(e)    subject to best consideration being demonstrated / secured and meeting the requirements set out within the Housing Acquisitions and Development Policy, the Leader of the Council, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing, the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery), the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer, be authorised to make the necessary decisions to enable the Heads of Terms to be agreed, the necessary consents to be obtained and legal agreements to be entered into within the principles established within this report.