Agenda item

To approve the public minutes and non-public summary of the Property Investment Board meeting held on 20 March 2019.

Members considered the draft public minutes and non-public summary of the last meeting of the Board on 20 March 2019.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 20 March 2019 be approved as an accurate record.

Matters Arising

Energy Consumption- Further to a Member’s question during the last meeting of the Board the City Surveyor provided Members with an update on the issue of energy consumption within the buildings directly managed by the City of London Corporation:

KPI 2 – Energy Consumption

At the presentation of the draft 2019-24 Business Plan at Property Investment Board (PIB) on 20 March 2019, a Member queried one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI). This item was KPI 2 – Corporate Energy Consumption. It was questioned whether it was more desirable to report on Energy Efficiency.

Although not explicitly stated within the high-level business plan, this measure is reported for the purposes of Corporate Asset Sub Committee (CASC) and not for PIB. However, it is worthwhile to respond to the Member query to explain the situation.

We have taken the opportunity to consult with the Energy Team on this point, and there are currently a number of barriers to reporting on Energy Efficiency for the entirety of our estate:

1. Data Gaps – At the moment available information is not sufficiently granular to determine energy consumption at different sites, or elements of these sites. In order to overcome these gaps, a sub metering Gateway 1-2 report was agreed by CASC in 2018. Progress on sub-metering at Guildhall will be subject to funding availability.

2. Different property uses – When considering energy efficiency, building use must be considered. For instance, it would be appropriate to consider ‘KWH per workstation’ for an office environment such as the Guildhall North Wing, however it would be more valid to measure ‘KWH per visitor’ at the Barbican, or ‘KWH per event’ for the Great Hall. As these denominators change between use and site, it is not advisable to combine them into a single efficiency measure across the Corporate Estate. Note that the City Surveyor’s Department is not the data owner for some of these metrics.

2.    Existing Benchmarks - there are currently a range of ‘benchmarks’ but each suffers from particular weaknesses. The national method is Display Energy Certificates, but these are quite broad and therefore not a driver for improving efficiency. As a result, organisations commonly report on consumption as their performance metric.

Following receipt of the update from the City Surveyor it was noted that additional work would be needed to achieve the required granularity for further investigation of energy consumption at the Guildhall. In addition, the City Surveyor noted that the City of London Corporation was behind other organisations on this analysis and that the newer buildings were easier to improve in terms of energy efficiency. It was commented by a Member that road mapping was key to demonstrating the possible savings which could be achieved through an increase in energy efficiency. Members noted that policy regarding the management of operational properties was under the terms of reference of the Corporate Asset Sub-Committee and therefore further discussion on the issue of energy consumption should be undertaken by the Sub-Committee.

Sustainable Buildings Policy- Members raised that there was considerable need for the City of London Corporation to adopt a Sustainable Buildings Policy and commented that the City was already a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment with relation to Financial Investments. It was commented by a Member of the Board that green ratings for properties were of increasing importance in the property sector and that there were appreciable commercial reasons for investing in sustainable properties. The City Surveyor confirmed that the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee had given approval to funding the appointment of consultants to advise on both the corporate and investment estates Sustainable Buildings Policy noting that a report on this would be ready for consideration by the Property Investment Board in the next couple of months. It was commented by a Member that a policy across all asset classes with relation to establishing a framework for a responsible investment would be required and suggested that this be raised at the Investment Committee meeting on the 16th of May. The Chair agreed with this suggestion and proposed that as part of the Sustainable Buildings Policy the Property Investment Board give consideration to co-opting a Member with a strong background in sustainability. In addition, it was agreed that the matter be discussed further at the May Investment Committee meeting.