Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain

The Committee received a Report of the Chamberlain concerning the department’s key work streams and business plan.

A Member queried the London-wide Strategic Investment Pot (SIP) allocation criteria. Specifically, she wanted to know whether, once the bids had been finalised, there was a subsequent process of sub-regional shifting of the bids. The Chamberlain confirmed that as the SIP was managed by the GLA, it made more sense to think strategically about how the SIP could be best applied to meet cross-borough challenges, and the bids were prioritised accordingly. The Chairman asked the Chamberlain to follow up with the Member to discuss this issue further.

After a Member raised his concerns about in-year revisions to budgets, the Chairman reminded Members that he and the Chamberlain had outlined to senior officers, in the most unambiguous terms, that in year revisions should be entirely abandoned; it was now incumbent upon Chief Officers to adhere to their original budgets.

A Member asked about the status of the bow wave, the Chairman responded that the City makes generous financial provision for it and is tackling it more quickly than in previous years, and so its growth, i.e. new items added to the list, was now stable. He added that the main concern for the City Surveyor, was around ensuring that a sufficient level of project management skills was in place to meet the challenge, this would become particularly acute as the major projects came on stream over the next three years. The Chairman of the Corporate Asset Sub-Committee noted that the bow wave had now plateaued and expected it to come down over the medium term. He added that a thorough conversation on the bow wave had taken place at the last meeting of the Corporate Asset-Sub Committee on 5^th September, focused on the Report: “Cyclical Works Programme (CWP) - Proposal for 2019-20”. The Chairman asked Officers to provide the Report to the Member after today’s meeting.

A Member queried the total for the latest round of PIP bids; officers responded that the final sum was £250,000, overall £1.5m had been allocated since the introduction of the PIP in January 2018, there were two more rounds to go.

A Member noted that the invoice turnaround target (SME’s should be paid within 10 days) had improved by only 8% over the last year (from 72% to 80%), and asked whether this could be improved; the Chamberlain responded that the goal was to keep improving, it should also be noted, he stressed, that the target was an internal one, the legal obligation was 30 days.

The Chamberlain added that the top table on page 21 will be amended for future iterations of the Report to include more explanation.

Finally, Members commended the Report for its clarity.

RESOLVED – that the Committee noted the Report