Agenda item

The report provides an update on the progress made towards delivering the Civic Enterprise Strategy. This includes details on activity undertaken to address the savings targets and how business plans can add value to improving outcomes for the borough as well as meeting financial targets.

Althea Loderick (the Council’s Strategic Director for Resources) introduced the report which provided the Committee with an update on the delivery of the Council’s Civic Enterprise Strategy. The strategy was initially approved by Cabinet in June 2016 and formed part of the Council’s 2016/2017 budget strategy. The Committee heard about the role of Civic Enterprise in delivering better outcomes for residents in Brent and maximising income generation for the Council in the face of diminished funding from central government. It was noted that the Council had a specific budget target of £5.7million in additional income to achieve by the 2018/2019. Althea Loderick outlined that the Council needed to work more innovatively to achieve this aim and that cultural change across the Council was required across five civic enterprise work streams. She stated that a high degree of staff engagement and market research had taken place to inform the following six key income generating projects being taken forward:

(i)         Energy;

(ii)        Trading with Schools;

(iii)       Consultancy Services;

(iv)       Weddings;

(v)        Make the best use of assets; and

(vi)       Investment in Businesses.

As an example, Althea Loderick spoke in greater detail about the energy development project and how it was aimed to generate income but also aligned with wider objectives such as reducing carbon emissions across the Borough and thereby providing the local community with better value energy services. She also drew attention to weddings being of increased significance because of the substantial opportunity for generating income, and possible opportunities for the Council to hold weddings externally at different venues across the Borough. The Committee also heard an overview of the achievements of income generating activity such as: a 10 year contract with Argiva to place wireless cells on lampposts; a tendering exercise now taking place to buy space on Council assets; the implementation of an in-house bailiff service; and income generating initiatives increasingly taking place on Wembley Park event days.

The Chair noted the need for culture change across the Council to make these aims achievable and asked how this would be measured. Althea Loderick stated that it was significant that the six key projects had been drawn from over 400 staff ideas for income generation. She stated it was very important that the Civic Enterprise Strategy was established using staff expertise from the bottom up, rather than from senior management having driven change from the top down. The Committee heard that this year’s ‘Your Voice’ staff survey asked specific questions on how involved staff were in innovative and entrepreneurial projects and whether they felt their ideas were being listened to. Althea Loderick stated that one way of measuring cultural change would be to see the responses to this survey reflecting progress made year on year. However, she did emphasise to the Committee that achieving this change would take time and was an ongoing process. She said that she believed staff would respond positively to seeing the projects achieve their aims and the favourable outcomes to residents arising from these in future. Councillor McLennan (Deputy Leader) added that cultural change would also require significant political leadership to ensure that staff knew that the Council was heading in a much more entrepreneurial direction in order to mitigate against further central government funding cuts. 

Questions arose surrounding the ‘Investment in Businesses’ project and whether there had been any detectable scepticism from central government or other local authorities on the concept of lending to small businesses. Althea Loderick stated that at this point there had not been, however conversations were ongoing with colleagues in the Finance Team to ensure that the Council maximised its return on any investment. The Chair also questioned whether this project would see the Council using ‘Funding Circle’ (a peer-to-peer lending platform often used by Local Authorities as a safe way of lending to small businesses). Althea Loderick confirmed that Brent was currently planning to use Funding Circle and hoped to use it to invest around £200,000 into small businesses across the Borough.

On specific issues relating to larger events at the Civic Centre, such as weddings, Members questioned whether ongoing issues surrounding both a lack of parking and the inflexibility of catering arrangements were being addressed. Althea Loderick agreed that there was a need for the Council to look in greater detail at the parking options available for larger events. On catering, the Committee heard that the Council was currently looking at re-negotiating its existing catering contract to ensure that there was greater flexibility particularly in terms of providing for different religions which had more specific dietary needs. It was noted that the Council was had not waited until the end of the current contract, but was re-negotiating mid-way through in order to try and address this quickly.

Discussions moved to the ‘Trading with Schools’ project, where a Member asked for greater detail on how this was expected to generate income when school budgets were likely to be frozen in the coming years. Althea Loderick responded that the idea was to offer schools advice on human resources issues, legal assistance and strategic financial planning. She told the Committee that the work of other Councils in this area had highlighted the potential for success but that the Council would need to tailor its offer specifically to each individual school’s needs. The Committee also heard that the initial plan would be to initially focus on offering services to independent schools in the Borough as secondary schools within academy chains and primary schools within multi-academy trusts were likely to have their own in-house services relating to these areas. 

Members raised questions on the pricing structure of events taking place at the Civic Centre and also what the publicity strategy was for advertising this as a venue. Althea Loderick and Councillor McLennan agreed that the general view tended to be that, at present, the Council was not utilising the space and facilities at the Civic Centre to its maximum in terms of generating income. On pricing, the Committee heard that the Civic Centre was deemed as a premier venue and it was important not to undervalue event prices. However it was acknowledged that there was also a need for a degree of balance between also making it available to community and voluntary sector organisations’ for social value events. Althea Loderick and Councillor McLennan both noted that the Council needed to decide what market it was ultimately aiming to be in, in terms of generating income from Civic Centre events. On publicity, Althea Loderick stated that the plan was to raise the profile of the different types of service that the Council could offer (including conferences and television adverts etc.) and this would generally come through a multitude of online channels. She also noted that the Council had also spoken to partners such as Quintain and the Football Association in terms of what the Council could offer in conjunction with some of its respective hospitality events.

RESOLVED that the content of the report be noted.