Agenda item

To consider the continuation of the Building Control shared services arrangement for a further 10 years. 

1.      That the shared service between Cheltenham Borough Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council be maintained for a ten year period from the expiry of the current agreement.

2.      That the delegation of Tewkesbury Borough Council’s building control functions to Cheltenham Borough Council, as host authority, in accordance with Section 101(1) of Local Government Act 1972 and under the Local Authorities (Arrangements for the Discharge of Functions) (England) Regulations 2012, be continued.  

3.      That authority be delegated to the Deputy Chief Executive, in consultation with the Lead Member for Built Environment and the S151 Officer, to enter into an appropriate agreement under the above-mentioned legislation (the S101 Agreement) and other legal documentation and to take all necessary steps to implement the above-mentioned resolutions.

45.1           The report of the Head of Development Services, circulated at Pages No. 133-139, recommended the continuation of the Building Control Shared Service arrangement for a further 10 years.

45.2           The Building Control Manager for the Shared Service indicated that as the agreement was due to expire, Officers had been reviewing the existing agreement and considering the options moving forward for both Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Borough Councils. A small Officer task and finish group involving finance officers from both authorities and representatives from One Legal had also been formed and that group had considered a number of options. In addition, the Joint Monitoring and Liaison Group – made up of Officers and Members – had been kept abreast of developments. The options considered were: to continue to deliver the Shared Service without change; to maintain the existing Shared Service model but adapt and change the service provision methods to reflect market forces and competition; to link the Shared Service to an existing local authority teckal company (Publica or Ubico); to set up the shared service as a new standalone local authority teckal company; to set up as a standalone Approved Inspector; to outsource to another service provider; for each authority to terminate the shared working agreement and take the service back in-house; and to expand the Shared Service to include other local authority building control teams.

45.3           The current position was that the building control team was made up of seven officers and, in the last financial year, that team had dealt with 1,354 applications across both local authorities. In addition to that, during 2018/19 the team had implemented a number of service improvements including: investment into street naming and numbering idox module to improve the service and create staff efficiencies; reduction of staff costs by £45,000 against the budget by introducing ‘grown your own’ staff development; development of a standalone Building Control website – this had been launched in September 2018; development of staff time recording to demonstrate cost recovery per application and allow effective analysis of time spent on chargeable and non-chargeable work in either Borough; development of branding through the website and signage boards; and the undertaking of activities to gain ISO9001 certification.

45.4           In response to a query regarding the proposed 50/50 split in costs, the Finance Manager explained that there was a ringfenced building control fee charging account so everything it charged for could break-even. If there was statutory work undertaken, each authority would need to pay the bill so overall it evened out. The Lead Member agreed and indicated that, as the building control service was a competitive market, the Shared Service did not see every case so it did not follow that if there was more development in Tewkesbury Borough that would be where the majority of building control applications would come from. In terms of competing in the market, the Building Control Manager explained that the team was very dynamic in looking at income streams and consulted on every planning application and had partnerships with architect firms etc. which also helped to generate income. The team was also looking at commercial opportunities like operating and offering thermal calculations. Building Control was a statutory function and therefore had to be provided in some way; the national average market share was 67% and the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Shared Service operated above that which was good news.

45.5           A Member questioned whether it was reasonable to extend the agreement for a further 10 years when the workload for the service was likely to see an exceptional increase between now and 2029. In response, the Building Control Manager confirmed that the agreement included a break clause at five years which would be long enough to allow the business to grow and assess how it was working.

45.6           Accordingly, it was