Agenda item

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of the Built Environment seeking approval to increase the existing fees and charges for services users of the District Surveyors, Building Control Service.

The District Surveyor spoke to confirm that the proposed increase was to cover the services provided and that this was to remain a cost neutral service with no profit permitted. He clarified that the sums proposed amounted to a 5% increase on the charges previously approved by this Committee in 2018 and were intended to take account of inflation. He reported that the District Surveyors Building Control Division was a very busy team, working on complex buildings and that the cost of their services was set competitively.

The District Surveyor concluded by stating that very accurate records were now kept by the Chamberlain detailing the time spent and costs incurred by the team on this work over the past few years.

A Member expressed concern that the figures provided within the table detailing Budgetary Performance from 2015-16 to 2019-20 indicated that money was being lost on chargeable work and that a large cumulative deficit now existed. He questioned how these costs would be recovered and whether there was a legal requirement to do so. The Member went on to remark that a similar charging regime existed in licensing and that this was reviewed annually as opposed to every five years, he questioned whether the same approach could therefore be adopted here.

The District Surveyor reported that it was a statutory duty of this Committee to oversee these charges and highlighted that they were reviewed annually and reported to the Planning & Transportation Committee. With regard to the budgetary performance figures, the District Surveyor highlighted that the 2016 Brexit referendum vote had led to a temporary but catastrophic lack of applications but that this was now steadily increasing once again. He added that 2019 had, however, seen the best year’s performance since 2015 and that income since Christmas 2019 was already double that of the same period last year.

In response to further questions, the District Surveyor reported that the Building Control Division had no entitlement to the work for construction in the City and had to compete in a competitive market. He added that the division had cut overheads by in excess of £100k and that he was therefore confident in terms of recovering costs and being able to operate on a cost neutral basis going forward.

The Chair, on behalf of the Committee, took the opportunity to thank the District Surveyor and his team for all of their hard work in this area.

RESOLVED – That, Members approve the new “City of London Building Control Charges Scheme No3:2020”, the new “City of London Miscellaneous Building Control Charges No3;2020” and the revised hourly rate of £112 per hour, to come into effect 6^th April 2020.