Agenda and minutes

Public Speaking: To register your intention to speak at a Council, Cabinet or Committee meeting, please contact Democratic Services on committee@uttlesford.gov.uk or 01799 510410, 510548, 510369 or 510460. Panel, Forum and Working Group meetings do not generally permit public speaking. Please refer to a specific meeting's pdf agenda pack for further information and registration deadlines.

Live Broadcast: For Council, Cabinet and Committee meetings the video player will be available on this page under the Media banner a few minutes before the meeting is due to begin. Please note that Panel, Board, Forum and Working Group meetings are not generally broadcast on the website. We believe that live streaming video of our formal decision making meetings, and publishing the recordings to be watched back later, is good for democracy – and you can find these videos on our website. This video technology sits alongside the longstanding practice of providing seats in the public gallery for members of the public and journalists to turn up and watch our in-person meetings live. Please understand that whilst we will continue to make every reasonable effort to ensure that our key public meetings at which important decisions are live streamed and recorded, any failure in that technology does not in any way invalidate the legitimacy of that meeting or of the decisions taken at it. Even in the event of such occasional technical failures, the public gallery will still have been open, as required by law, and the minutes of the meetings will still be made available in due course.

Zoom and YouTube have their own privacy and data security policies, which can be accessed at www.zoom.us and www.youtube.com.

Venue: Committee Room - Council Offices, London Road, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11 4ER. View directions

Contact: Email: Committee@Uttlesford.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of the Chair

To elect a Chair.

Minutes:

Councillor Lodge said that the intention remained that when Independent Members were recruited to the Board one of them would take the Chair. Nominations were invited for Chair.

 

AGREED to appoint Councillor Lodge as the Chair of the Investment Board.

 

 

2.

Apologies for Absence and Declarations of Interest

To receive any apologies for absence and declarations of interest.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Khan, Reeve and Sell.

 

3.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 59 KB

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting.

Minutes:

                           The minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2020 were approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

 

 

 

 

4.

EXCLUSION OF PUBLIC AND PRESS

Minutes:

 

 

AGREED that under section 1001 of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded for the following items of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

 

 

5.

Investment Opportunities 3 and 4

To consider Investment Opportunities 3 and 4.

Minutes:

The Director – Finance and Corporate Services gave a summary of the report, which detailed two investment opportunities that would be outside of the 2020/21 budget process but would form part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy solution ongoing. If agreed both projects would generate net income in 2020/21 and the proposed use of the net income would be set out for Council on 10 March 2020.

 

The Director – Finance and Corporate Services summarised the advantages of Investment Opportunity 3. The Council had an opportunity to acquire for £20 million a local new build that was being built to a very high standard and that would provide an annual yield of 5.29%. The proposed lease would be for 25 years with no break clause with fixed annual increases of 2.5% compounded every five years. It was intended to exchange contracts as soon as possible with a view to completion by the end of July 2020. The risks had been identified and were debated by Members.

 

The Director – Finance and Corporate Services summarised the advantages of Investment Opportunity 4. The Council had an opportunity to acquire for £6.1 million a refurbished out of area office building that would provide an annual yield of 5.41%. The lease had been signed on 10 September 2019 for 20 years with no break clause with 2% fixed increases compounded every five years. It was intended to exchange contracts in March 2020 with a view to completion before the end of May 2020. The risks had been identified and were debated by Members.

 

Members agreed to vote on each investment opportunity separately after discussion.

 

In respect of Investment Opportunity 3:

 

AGREED to recommend to Cabinet that:

 

a.  The property purchase as set out in this report is agreed up to the sum of £21,500,000.

 

b.   Members agree a split between interest only and repayment funding.

c.   The purchase costs as set out in paragraphs 13 and 14 are capitalised.

d.  The purchases are made as a direct investment by Uttlesford District Council.

In respect of Investment Opportunity 4:

AGREED to recommend to Cabinet that:

 

a.    The property purchase as set out in this report is agreed up to the sum of £7,000,000.

 

b.    Members agree a split between interest only and repayment funding.

c.    The purchase costs as set out in paragraph 33 are capitalised.

d.    The purchases are made as a direct investment by Uttlesford District Council.

 

6.

List of Rejected and Ongoing Investment Opportunities

To receive the list of rejected and ongoing investment opportunities.

Minutes:

The Director - Finance and Corporate Services outlined various rejected and ongoing investment opportunities; he explained the logic behind either rejecting or continuing to take forward potential schemes and the need to diversify the Portfolio. He stated that the intention over time would be to develop a Protocol. Members welcomed the format of the presentation and considered that this would be a very useful regular exercise. 

 

7.

Update on Independent Member Recruitment

To receive an update on Independent Member recruitment.

Minutes:

The Director – Finance and Corporate Services provided an update on the recruitment of Independent Members. There had been press releases, an advertisement on the Council website and NED (The Non-Executive Directors Exchange) would also receive the information. CV’s had been requested and interviews would be held 9.00 - 13.00 hrs on 11 March 2020 with Councillors Lavelle, Lodge and Pavitt sitting on the panel. 

 

 

 

 

The meeting closed at 4.50pm.