Appendix 3
Proposed Asset Management Fund - Detail of Allocations
1) General Property Improvements
1a) Workstyles Phase 4: £750,000
Workstyles is a corporate modernisation programme, established to improve office space and enable flexible, safe and secure working across a range of operational sites. The programme has contributed to the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy and Capital Investment Programme by consolidating the council’s operational portfolio, delivering revenue savings of over £2m, and generating capital receipts in excess of £25m. The Asset Management Fund has supported the delivery of the Workstyles programme, contributing to the development of business cases, feasibility studies and professional surveys, as well as funding capital improvements to operational buildings that further enable flexible working and improve accessibility.
Reprioritisation of Workstyles programme
The Workstyles programme has been developed to support the corporate strategic priorities of increasing the housing stock, generating community wealth and social value, and achieving a carbon neutral city by 2030. These priorities were reviewed alongside the programme’s primary objective of enabling flexible and accessible working across the council’s operational portfolio.
Current projects within the Workstyles Programme (not all of which are supported by the Asset Management Fund) include:
Moulsecoomb Neighbourhood Hub – Proposals for a new neighbourhood hub in Moulsecoomb will provide accommodation for a range of council and partnership services (including Library Services, Health, Youth Services, Community Space, and Adult Learning), and release surplus land for development into 212 new council homes. The project is also supported by One Public Estate grant funding.
Hollingdean Depot offices – aligned with the wider City Environment modernisation programme, a Workstyles project has been established to review and modernise office accommodation at Hollingdean Depot to devise and implement flexible working practices within the City Clean service.
City Downland Estate Plan – Workstyles are project managing the delivery of the City Downland Estate Plan project through facilitating a series of public engagement workshops, developing a vision for the future of the council’s Downland estate and using Planning for Real community facilitators. The draft City Downland Estate Plan (CDEP) is currently going through iterative consultations with stakeholders, the Downland Advisory Panel, South Downs National Park (SDNP) with a large public consultation launch in the Summer. Collated feedback responses will shape the Plan, aiming to present the final CDEP to Policy & Resources Committee in the winter and for SDNP endorsement early 2023.
Family Children & Learning Accommodation Strategy – As part of the wider Moulsecoomb project, new offices are being developed in Portslade for social workers currently based in Moulsecoomb Hub North & South. This presents opportunities to also support the council’s Future Ways of Working programme following Covid recovery looking at the future hybrid model of working led by HR and supported by Property and IT&D.
Future Ways of Working – Accommodation Strategy
As part of the council’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the Future Ways of Working group is developing proposals for how the council will operate in the future. This includes an organisation-wide accommodation strategy that seizes the opportunities presented by the pandemic. The aims of the accommodation strategy are to:
· Enable greater flexibility and choice for staff over where and how they work
· Redesign council-owned workspace to encourage greater collaboration between staff, partners and residents
· Explore opportunities to rationalise the operational portfolio, supporting the council’s medium term financial strategy and reducing the council’s carbon footprint
· Align with other corporate strategies emerging from the pandemic recovery work e.g. Customer Experience, Digital, and Organisational Development
Focus on the continuation of the consolidation of corporate office accommodation and the potential to exit Barts House on a phased basis, exploring options for Brighton, Hove and Portslade Town Halls.
The 2022/23 Asset Management Fund contribution to Workstyles will support continued delivery of these projects, as well as any new projects that emerge through regular review of the operational estate, provided that proposals align with the Administration’s strategic priorities, as outlined above.
1b) Bartholomew House- Trickle vent installation: £30,000
This budget will go towards improvements to existing windows at Bartholomew House in conjunction with ventilation improvements to meeting rooms and surrounding areas on relevant floors of Barts House.
1c) Energy Performance Certificates: £35,000
Properties need to have a minimum EPC Rating of an ‘E’ in order to be able to lease them and by 2023 all properties that are leased are required to have a minimum E Rating. The Council has a number of ‘F’ and ‘G’ rated properties and works are required to these to bring them up to an ‘E’ Rating in order to be able to lease them thereby securing an income.
On average it costs £3,000-£5,000 to bring a property up to the required rating so this £35,000 contribution would improve up to circa 11 properties.
2) Equality Act Improvements: £65,000
2a) The access improvement budget will continue to support projects that
improve physical and sensory access for people with disabilities to the council’s
public building and spaces.
Portslade Town Hall - improvements to existing ramped entrance
Lift lighting upgrade - Council Property Lifts: £40,000
3) Property Related Health & Safety Legislation
3a) Asbestos Management: £20,000
Allocation contributing towards a centralised corporate fund to meet the actions
as detailed in the corporate asbestos surveys. This fund is used to manage the
risk and prevent exposure and the spread of Asbestos Containing Material and is
prioritised in the Corporate Asbestos Register.
3b) Legionella Works (L8): £20,000
On-going works are required to council properties to ensure the water management of the council’s property portfolio is meeting the requirements of the Approved Code of Practice – HES-L8 to prevent the occurrence of legionella in installed equipment and water systems. In 2022-23 targeted areas will be Social Care and Civic properties where risk assessment reviews highlight the need for remedial works, together with the ongoing auto flushing components required in the sports pavilions (about 50% complete).
3c) Fire Risk Assessment Works: £80,000
This bid will contribute towards a prioritised rolling programme of works to council properties following Fire Risk Assessments of council properties.
Various works have been identified and this bid will allow the highest priority works to be completed in accordance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
For example, fire stopping works have been identified as being required at Brighton Town Hall and fire stopping and fire door upgrades at New England House. The works to New England House are informed by return of a specialist Fire Compartmentation Survey and will be specified following further planned intrusive survey work to confirm expected deficiencies in fire stopping and compartmentation.