Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Deputy Doug Barrow, the Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor Alderman Charles Bowman, Alderman Peter Estlin, Jeremy Mayhew, Deputy Tom Sleigh (Vice Chairman) and Mark Wheatley.

The Chairman took the opportunity to thank Lord Mountevans, whose term on the Court had come to an end the previous day, for his many contributions to the work of the Policy and Resources Committee and the City Corporation over the past several years.

Deputy Catherine McGuinness declared a potential pecuniary interest in respect of Item 12 by virtue of her ownership of a property at Bryer Court, Barbican, advising that she would withdraw from the meeting and the Deputy Chairman would take the Chair for consideration of this item. Deputy Joyce Nash and Deputy John Tomlinson declared similar but non-pecuniary interests as residents of the Barbican Estate.

The following Members declared an interest in respect of Item 4, noting whether they had received dispensations to speak as follows:

·         Randall Anderson

·         Vivienne Littlechild

·         Alderman Ian Luder

·         Deputy Catherine McGuinness

·         Deputy John Tomlinson

The Comptroller & City Solicitor spoke at length to provide clear guidance on the matter of dispensations and the requirements of the Localism Act, drawing reference to the case of Councillor Flower of Dorset County Council, who had been prosecuted for a breach of the Act. His firm advice to Members in doubt was that they should err on the side of caution, but, ultimately, the decision was one for Members. The Chairman asked that the advice provided be circulated to the Committee following the meeting.

Several Members spoke to express their concerns about the City’s application of the requirements and the difficulties of some Members in effectively representing their constituents, suggesting that the approach was not consistent with that taken by other local authorities. The Comptroller observed that other local authorities were not always good comparators for the City Corporation as they often operated under executive arrangements; equally, the Barbican Estate was not a local authority housing estate and thus comparisons made might not have been like-for-like. With reference to the particular concerns relating to the Barbican Residential Committee, he advised that this specialised Committee had an element of conflict by its very nature, due to the way it was composed and

To consider minutes as follows:-

The public minutes of the meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee held on 7 June 2018 were approved.

The draft public minutes of the Courts Sub-Committee meeting held on 11 June 2018 were noted.

The draft public minutes of the Projects Sub-Committee meeting held on 13 June 2018 were noted.

The public summary report of the meeting of the Culture Mile Working Party held on 14 June 2018 was noted.

The draft public minutes of the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee meeting held on 19 June 2018 were noted.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Deputy Chairman took the Chair for consideration of this item.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk examining the current structures in place around housing governance and presenting a range of initial options for consideration in respect of a future direction for the City Corporation’s housing governance arrangements.

Michael Hudson, the newly-elected Chairman of the Barbican Residential Committee, was invited to address the Committee. He outlined the activity which he had undertaken since taking on the Chairmanship, consulting with various parties to identify potential solutions to specific concerns relating to that Committee’s composition and difficulties experienced by some Members of the Committee with respect to dispensations. He suggested that it would be appropriate for his Committee to take an initial view on the matter so as to inform any future consideration by the Policy and Resources Committee. Members agreed that this would be prudent, observing that other Committees which might be affected, such as the Community & Children’s Services Committee and the Property Investment Board, should also be consulted.

It was agreed that, given the clear need for other Committees to take an initial view on the matter, this paper had been presented precipitately and that consideration should be deferred until the autumn, once the views of the other affected Committees were known and the proposals had been refined accordingly.

RESOLVED: That the report be deferred.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk concerning proposed amendments to the terms of reference of the Standards Committee and the Board of Governors of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

RESOLVED: That the proposed amendments to terms of reference, as set out in the report, be approved.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk proposing an extension to the term of an incumbent Member on the Local Government Pensions Board, to facilitate the staggering of terms of membership on the Board.

RESOLVED: That the Court of Common Council be recommended to extend the term of James Tumbridge on the Local Government Pensions Board by a period of two years, to

expire in April 2021, to facilitate a staggering of membership and offer sufficient overlap between elected Members on the Board moving forwards.

Joint report of the Town Clerk and the Remembrancer.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Town Clerk and Remembrancer proposing corporate sponsorship of the ‘There But Not There’ National Armistice project.

RESOLVED: That approval be given to a donation of £15,000 to the Charity ‘Remembered’ to be met out of the Committee’s 2018/19 Policy Initiatives Fund, categorised under ‘Promoting the City’ and charged to City’s Cash.

Report of the Assistant Town Clerk and the Culture Mile Director.

The Committee considered a report of the Assistant Town Clerk & Culture Mile Director proposing the adoption of a Culture Mile Strategy for 2018-23.

RESOLVED: That the process for developing the Strategy be noted and that the Strategy be approved for adoption as appended to the report.

Joint report of the Chamberlain and Chief Grants Officer.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Chamberlain and the Chief Grants Officer & City Bridge Trust Director proposing the adoption of a Responsible Business Strategy for 2018-23.

RESOLVED: That the Responsible Business Strategy 2018-23 be approved as set out at Appendix 1.

Joint report of the City Surveyor and the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

The Committee considered a joint report of the City Surveyor and the Director of Community & Children’s Services setting out the Housing Delivery Programme Working Group’s proposal of the adoption of an additional policy to identify other housing opportunities, as well as to resource the development of these options and commit in principle to investment in such options.

Members were reminded that the commitment made previously had been explicit in referring to 3,700 homes being delivered on City Corporation-owned land. The suggestion being made was that this policy be altered to allow for other land to be looked at, with it noted that Members should be conscious of this change in approach should they agree to proceed.

Several Members spoke to support the proposal for collaboration or partnership with other parties to be explored, noting however that each individual proposal would need to be considered on its own merits. It was also noted that the City Corporation was not a commercial housing developer and lacked the expertise to seek to operate in this fashion, with Members also observing the difficulties often associated with housing developments in London due to various planning restrictions or requirements. A Member also spoke to make clear they would oppose any proposed development on greenfield sites.

RESOLVED: That Members:-

1)    note the challenges to delivering the existing policy of 3,700 additional homes by 2025;

2)    approve the development of an additional policy and options to increase the supply of new homes beyond the use of its own sites, including:

a.    approval in principle to the allocation of resources for future investment;

b.    noting the potential and range options and opportunities set out in the report;

c.     approval of resources of up to £100,000 from City Cash to provide expertise and capacity to develop and propose costed options

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Community & Children’s Services concerning proposals to deliver mental health centre in the Square Mile, to deliver a range of clinical treatments to tackle mental ill health amongst workers and the resident population.

It was noted that this report had been withdrawn from the meeting of the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee earlier that day due to an outstanding query concerning the allocation of Community Infrastructure Levy funds. A further report would be submitted to that Sub-Committee in due course.

RESOLVED: That approval be given to:

·         funding of £32,000 to compensate the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for void losses (of which £16,000 was committed at risk); and,

·         funding of up to £192,000 to enable a maximum of two shop units from the HRA to be provided rent free for three years.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Deputy Chairman took the Chair for consideration of this item. Deputy Catherine McGuinness withdrew from the meeting whilst the item was considered.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of the Built Environment concerning transportation and public realm improvements in the Beech Street area.

Members were advised that this item had been substantively withdrawn, following consideration by the Streets & Walkways Sub-Committee on 3 July 2018 where Members had rejected the proposals as outlined in the report.

The resolution of the Streets & Walkways Sub-Committee meeting held on 3 July 2018 was subsequently tabled, alongside revised recommendations limiting the proposals to funding relating to the structures investigation element of the project and requesting that a revised report be submitted to the next meeting which examined the options around commissioning either a limited Beech Street area traffic model or a City-wide traffic model. It was noted that the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee had supported the approach recommended by the Streets & Walkways Sub-Committee and the Policy & Resources Committee was asked to endorse this position.

RESOLVED: That approval be given to:-

1)    an increase in the estimated project budget of £98,402 to £218,927 to fund the structures investigations to Gateway 4 and the City-wide model investigation until the next update report in September;

2)    the allocation of £98,402 of Public Realm and Local Transport Improvement CIL funds to fund the structures investigation element of the project to Gateway 4.  (N.B. - this was the total for structures work as set out in Appendix 4 of the original report , i.e. £18,402 structures team staff costs + £80,000 structures consultant fees); and

3)    the delegation of authority for any adjustments between elements of the £218,927 required budget to the Director of the Built Environment, in conjunction with the Chamberlain, provided the total approved budget of

Joint report of the City Surveyor and the Director of Built Environment.

The Committee considered a joint report of the City Surveyor and the Director of the Built Environment providing an update on the City of London Corporation’s activities at the MIPIM property exhibition in March 2018 and seeking approval for attendance at MIPIM 2019.

RESOLVED: That:-

1)    the additional cost of attending MIPIM 2018 be noted; and

2)    that the approval be given for the City of London Corporation to attend MIPIM 2019 with a total budget of £94,000.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of the Built Environment providing an update on the progress of the Gigabit City programme, which aimed to improve wired and wireless connectivity in the Square Mile. The report responded to the resolution passed by the Annual Wardmote of the Ward of Aldgate on the 22 March 2018, referred to the Policy and Resources Committee for action.

RESOLVED: That the report be received and its content noted.

Report of the Director of Human Resources.

Members considered a report of the Director of Human Resources seeking resource to establish the post of Diversity and Business Engagement Manager and support the City Corporation’s wider equalities diversity and inclusion work.

In response to Members’ queries concerning the role and the importance of embedding equalities and inclusion across the organisation, the Chairman of the Establishment Committee observed that fully achieving this would take time and clarified that this role was intended to assist in achieving that aim.

RESOLVED: That approval be given to:-

1)    a budget uplift of £66,000 for a Diversity and Business Engagement Manager (on a pro-rata basis for 2018/19);

2)    a budget uplift for associated Equality and Inclusion (E&I) budget of £20,000 to support and develop the staff networks and City of London Corporation E&I Initiatives both internally and in the City;

3)    a budget uplift for the annual membership to Stonewall Diversity Champions and event attendance of £4,000;

4)    a one-off budget uplift to fund £6,250 for a diversity entry at the Lord Mayor’s Show; and

5)    a base budget increase of £74,250 to be funded from the Policy and Resources 2018/19 Committee’s Contingency and a base budget increase of £90,000 per annum thereafter. 

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Economic Development proposing the closure of two employability programmes, the City Careers Open House and the City of London Business Traineeship, at the end of their current contract cycle.

RESOLVED: That the closure of the City Careers Open House and the City of London Business Traineeship programmes at the end of their current contract cycles be approved.

Report of the Director of Economic Development.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Economic Development proposing continued high-level involvement with the annual City Week event, organised by City and Financial Global taking place in May 2019.

RESOLVED: That the provision of £25,000 from the 2019/20 Policy Initiatives Fund be approved, categorised under ‘Events’ and charged to City’s Cash, in order to finance the City’s sponsorship of the 9th City Week annual conference.

Joint report of the Director of Communications and the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director of Communications and the Director of the Built Environment concerning the fireworks display associated with the Lord Mayor’s Show.

A representative of the City of London Police was in attendance, who outlined the various concerns held by the Force in respect of health and safety concerns. These were primarily due to the need to balance the competing demands of establishing requisite hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) measures in view of the national terror threat level, whilst also allowing sufficient ingress and egress routes to counter the risk of over-crowding and associated crushing in the event of an incident. Significant additional resource would be necessary to manage this risk and, even with this resource, due to the short period of planning time remaining until the proposed event the City Police would still retain real concerns from a public safety perspective.

The Assistant Director of the Built Environment also spoke to outline the requirements in terms of road closures and traffic implications, noting that Westminster City Council’s clear direction was that they would not authorise road closures on the scale of last year’s event, due to the disruption caused. However, as a consequence of the increased HVM and footprint required to offset the issues highlighted by the City Police, a greater scale of road closures would ultimately be required to facilitate the event. The Assistant Town Clerk & Culture Mile Director also took the opportunity to outline the extensive activity undertaken in the lead-up to last year’s Show, where the continually evolving situation in respect of competing HVM and crowd safety requirements had resulted in the Show almost being cancelled at the eleventh hour, despite the larger footprint.  

In response to questions, it was advised that relocating the fireworks to Tower Bridge had been assessed

Report of the Director of Communications.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Communications proposing a two-year partnership with the Strand Group centred around a series of events focused on HM Treasury as an institution and topics of interest to both the government and the City Corporation.

RESOLVED: That the funding of three events in partnership with the Strand Group be approved at a cost of £25,000 per annum for two years, to be met from the Committee’s Policy and Initiatives Fund for 2018/19 and 2019/20, categorised under Events and charged to City’s Cash.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee received a report of the Chamberlain which set out the use of the Policy Initiatives Fund and Committee’s Contingency for 2018/19.

RESOLVED: That the report be received and its content noted.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee received a report of the Town Clerk advising of two decisions taken under urgency procedures since the last meeting.

RESOLVED: That the report be received and the actions taken under urgency procedures be noted.

There were two questions:

London Living Wage

In response to a question, it was confirmed that a report on the London Living Wage would be coming to the September meeting of the Committee.

City Police Licensing Inspector

A Member highlighted concerns about a staffing changes within the City Police which would mean that there was no longer a dedicated Licensing Inspector post. The Licensing Committee, at its 4 July 2018 meeting, had expressed its significant disquiet as to this change and the Member asked whether a rationale could be provided. It was suggested that the either the Police Committee or the Commissioner of Police would be better placed to provide the clarification requested.

There were two urgent items:

Request for Delegated Authority: London CIV

The Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain which sought delegated authority in relation to the appointment of a shareholder representative to serve on the London Local Government Pension Scheme Collective Investment Vehicle Ltd (reg no: 09136445) (the London CIV).

RESOLVED: That authority be delegated to the Town Clerk in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to confirm the City of London Corporation’s representative shareholder on the London CIV Ltd.

Gasworks at Victoria Embankment

The Chairman of the Planning and Transportation Committee took the opportunity to remind Members of the programmed works that Transport for London, Thames Tideway and Cadent Gas had planned for a four- to six-week period on Victoria Embankment from early August, which would require a westbound closure and could therefore have traffic implications for the City. In addition, it had now been suggested that final works in 2019 could require a closure of the Embankment in both directions for up to six months. Consequently, he wished to alert Members to this proposal given that such a closure was unprecedented for that location and could have major consequences on traffic in much of Central London, as well as requiring a moratorium on all other major planned works elsewhere in the City.

The Chairman advised that, now that City officers were aware of this possibility, he had instructed them to vigorously challenge the basis on which TfL, Tideway and Cadent wished to proceed next year. He added that he would endeavour to update all Members on the outcome of this challenge once more information became available.

MOTION - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED – That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To consider non-public minutes of meetings as follows:-

The non-public minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 7 June 2018 were approved.

The draft non-public minutes of the Courts Sub-Committee meeting held on 11 June 2018 were noted.

The draft non-public minutes of the Projects Sub-Committee meeting held on 13 June 2018 were noted.

The draft non-public minutes of the Culture Mile Working Party meeting held on 14 June 2018 were noted.

The draft non-public minutes of the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee meeting held on 19 June 2018 were noted.

N.B - To be read in conjunction with Item 10.

The Committee received the non-public appendices relating to Item 10 (Housing Delivery).

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the Town Clerk concerning the ongoing Museum of London relocation project.

Joint report of the Chamberlain and the Commissioner.

The Committee considered and approved a joint report of the Chamberlain and Commissioner of Police which sought funding for activity in relation to the delivery of a combined IT strategy for the City Corporation and City Police.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the Chamberlain concerning the allocation of central funding for projects and providing a summary of the approved allocations from provisions for new schemes.

There were no questions.

There was one urgent item:

Fleet Street Site

The Committee considered and approved proposals relating to a major building project in the Fleet Street area.

Report of the Director of Human Resources.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the Director of Human Resources concerning the proposed pay deal for staff for 2018-20.