Agenda and minutes

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 5 February 2018 be confirmed and signed as an accurate record of the proceedings, and that the outstanding actions be noted.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Andrew Jones, Ben Coleman and Max Schmid.

1.         To approve the Procurement strategy to procure a new case management system for LBHF legal services through a call-off contract from the Crown Commercial Services G-Cloud 9 Framework.

2.         To approve the award of a contract to DPS Software Limited (trading as DPS Cloud) (“DPS”) under the G-Cloud 9 Framework to host and provide a case management system for Legal Services for a period of up to 4 years (two-year initial term with the option to extend by 2 further periods of up to 12 months each) at a total cost of up to £239,670.00.

3.         That the Director of HR be delegated authority, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer and the Cabinet Member for Finance, to take all necessary legal and practical steps required in order to complete the contract.

4.         That the Director of HR be delegated authority, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer and the Cabinet Member for Finance, to exercise the option to extend by 2 further periods of up to 12 months each in accordance with the terms of the Contract.

1        That for the duration of the LGRP Framework (namely, 3rd October 2017 – 2 October 2021), the Framework be utilised and accessed to secure services under the following Lots

Lot 1    Executive Search Permanent (roles over £70K)

                         & Interim Recruitment (all roles)

Lot 2    Permanent Recruitment (roles between £30 - £70K)

Lot 3    HR Consultancy

Lot 4    HR Marketing Solutions

2        That the calling off of any individual contracts under Lots 1,2,3, or 4 of the LGRP Framework be done in the manner prescribed by the Framework and in accordance with the Council’s Contract Standing Orders and internal processes in place. 

Councillor Lucy Ivimy asked for more details in relation to the total value of £1,570 on Table 2 – Variance Analysis, page 70 of the agenda pack. The Strategic Finance Director, Hitesh Jolapara, agreed to email Councillor Ivimy more information.

RESOLVED:

1.    To approve the decision making in relation to production of final accounts to be delegated to the Strategic Finance Director in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance.

2.    To approve the proposed virements requests in appendix 11.

3.    To approve the consolidation of corporate reserves in line with the categorisation shown in appendix 13.

4.    To note that officers are putting in place additional financial controls in response to the forecast overspend.

5.    To note primary consideration will be given to the use of departmental reserves for to mitigate any year end overspends, the decision making on this is delegated to the Strategic Finance Director in consultation with Cabinet Member for Finance.

6.    To note that no budget underspend carry-forward requests are agreed.

7.    To note that month 9, will be the last Corporate Revenue Monitor Report before the year-end.

1.    That Cabinet agrees to implement a policy to formally end the use of bailiffs (enforcement agents) relating to the collection of council tax.

2.    That Cabinet agrees a policy that no committal proceedings shall be used against any resident who owes council tax. This will mean that, as a matter of policy, the council will not seek to imprison someone for having a council tax debt.

3.    That the Cabinet agrees that a pilot on collections and management of council tax arrears (as defined in appendix 1) be commenced with LBHF Joint Ventures Limited and its sub-contractor 1^st Credit Limited.

4.    That Cabinet agrees funding of up to £80,000 for the pilot with the draw down of this funding delegated to the Strategic Finance Director in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance.

Councillor Lucy Ivimy questioned the merits of spending a large sum of money in IT equipment. The Leader pointed out that the investment was necessary as the current computers were very dated and people were now going paperless and needed suitable equipment.

RESOLVED:

1.    To approve the strategy of one mobile device and a smartphone per member of staff.

2.    To approve the strategy for desktop service provision based on a solution of non VDI thick clients (option 2) which will support the council’s strategy to have a mobile workforce while delivering the greatest reduction in annual running costs.

3.    To note the projected annual saving up to £1.4m for option 2 thick client solution from 2019/20.

4.    To approve business change resource required for 12 months to undertake change management relating to the new desktop service including Windows 10, exploiting Office 365, increasing the use of mobile telephony, migrating file shares to SharePoint, and migrating Outlook public folders to O365.

5.    To delegate to the Strategic Finance Director, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and the interim CIO, the decision on the extension of current desktop support contract for up to 12 months to enable the safe transition from the current service. This extension is still under negotiation and will be confirmed by 31^st March 2018.

6.    To delegate to the Strategic Finance Director, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and the interim CIO, the extension of current foundation services provided by Agilisys IaaS for up to 6 months.

7.    To delegate to the Strategic Finance Director, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and the interim CIO, the selection of the end point device catalogue and the desktop support costs.

Councillor Lucy Ivimy enquired about the procurement process and the selection of tenderers. The Leader assured that the Lead Director of Regeneration, Planning and Housing Services, Jo Rowlands, had carried out a thorough review and budget allocation and had received extensive advice. The Scheme had a high percentage of affordable housing, it had been positively received by the public and would regenerate Hammersmith & Fulham.

RESOLVED:

1.            To delegate authority to the Lead Director for Regeneration, Planning and Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, to complete negotiations with A2 Dominion Housing Association and their subsidiary companies A2 Dominion Homes Ltd and A2 Dominion Developments Ltd. with regard to the King Street Regeneration in order to enter into Heads of Terms.

2.            To enter Heads of Terms, once negotiations are completed, for the transfer of land at

·           181 King Street,

·           Nigel Playfair Avenue,

·           207 King Street, and

·           the Town Hall Extension,

·           (all of which is shown edged red in appendix 1), to A2 Dominion Homes Ltd. and A2 Dominion Developments Ltd. under a land sale agreement on a 250 - year lease.

3.            To note that the decision for any Land Transfer in the West King Street Regeneration will return to Cabinet for approval.

4.            To delegate authority to the Lead Director for Regeneration, Planning and Housing, and the Director of Building and Property Management in consultation with Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration and the Cabinet Member for Finance to complete asset transactions in connection with:

·           the Friends Meeting House at Nigel Playfair Avenue and

·           land of the Former Children’s Centre at Bradmore Park Road

and to confirm that disposal of the land will be covered by General Consents under s123 of Local Government Act 1972 and/or to seek the necessary consent from the Secretary of State should it be required.

5.            To resolve that the area of land at 181 King Street; 207 King Street; Nigel Playfair Avenue; Town Hall Annex referred to in this report and shown edged red on the plan at Appendix 1 is no longer required for the purpose for which it is currently held.

6.            To approve in principle the appropriation of the area of land in appendix 1 to the planning purposes of facilitating redevelopment for residential and other uses pursuant to section 122 of the Local Government Act 1972 in order to override easements covenants and other third party rights  in respect of the land pursuant to section 203 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 subject to the requirements set out in the legal implications section having been satisfied and a further report for approval being made to Cabinet.

7.            To approve a budget of £360,000 to deliver a successful negotiation of legal agreements, complete the necessary commercial, tax and accountancy assessments, and the associated project management.

8.            To approve budget of £250,000 for the client-side Council Accommodation Delivery Team over the next 6 months. This includes dedicated technical specification management, IT project management and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 144.

Councillor Lisa Homan highlighted the importance of this decision to improve the payment options available to leaseholders, and to make it easier and cheaper to collect money. She added that these options had been discussed at the Leasehold Forum.

RESOLVED:

1.            That approval be given to offer the following menu of payment options for resident leaseholders and for non-residential leaseholders who do not sublet more than one Hammersmith & Fulham leasehold property where the property is owned by individuals[1]:

2.         To agree to an interest rate for leasehold payment options based on 0.25% above the average council lending rate[2] for the previous year for the above.

3.         To delegate authority to the Lead Director for Regeneration Planning & Housing acting through the Director of Finance & Resources (Regeneration, Planning & Housing), in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing, to consider any applications from leaseholders on the grounds of extreme hardship to vary the length of repayment periods.

4.         To delegate authority to the Lead Director for Regeneration Planning & Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing, the ability to agree payment plans on a project by project basis where leaseholders estimated bills are likely to be in excess of £22,500

5.         To approve a change to the terms for discretionary loans to allow a maximum loan period of 25 years.

6.         To approve that any loan or repayment plan for a sum of £12,500 or above to be secured as a voluntary charge on the property.  The administration cost associated with this should be borne by the applicant and will be £150.

It was noted that Cabinet considered Appendix 2 – Summary of responses to borough wide consultation (marked as “To Follow” on the main report), which was sent to all Cabinet Members in the morning. The public consultation ended on Friday 23 February. Names and addresses had been redacted for data protection.

Councillor Lisa Homan welcomed the recommendations and stated that the local lettings plan had been prepared to assist in the letting of new affordable homes in the borough and to ensure local residents would get the first offer.

RESOLVED:

That the Local Lettings Plan for Edith Summerskill House and the former North Fulham housing office, annexed to this report at Appendix 1, be approved.

1.    To approve a waiver of the Contract Standing Orders requirement to seek competitive tenders prior to contract award to enable the Council to directly award a contract for the provision of refuge accommodation for women and children experiencing domestic abuse for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 with the option to extend for up to an additional 12 months.

2.    To approve a direct award of a contract for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 with the option to extend for up to an additional 12 months.

To approve a waiver of the Contract Standing Orders requirement to seek competitive tenders prior to contract award to enable the Council to directly award three contracts for the provision of supported accommodation services to young people to the incumbent providers for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 with the option to extend for up to an additional 12 months.

1.    To agree to enter into Phase 2 of the FamilyStory project, which will progress the work done during the Discovery Phase, moving the design from concept to an initial set of products which will test the viability of this solution. 

2.    To note the options appraisal outlined in Section 5 and undertakes a Single Tender Action Procedure to directly commission FamilyStory, inviting FutureGov to submit a formal tender in response to our specification.

3.    To approve a waiver to the Contracts Standing Orders as the nature of the market for the works to be carried out demonstrate that such a departure would be justified.

4.    To approve that FamilyStory be funded through residual PiP of £28,000 and £152,000 from the Corporate Demands and Pressures reserve.

5.    To approve delegation to the Director for Children’s Services and the Director for Public Service Reform, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children and Education and the Chief Information Officer for LBHF, any subsequent strategy or contract award decision regarding Stage 2 of the project.

The Leader stated that he was very proud of the Council’s support for the scheme.

RESOLVED:

1.    To endorse the campaign to make London the world’s first ‘National Park City’.

2.    To encourage all Hammersmith and Fulham councillors to declare their ward’s support for the scheme.

3.    To note that the process to declare support is straight forward and can be done via the following web site - http://www.nationalparkcity.london/ward_support

The Key Decision List was noted.

That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items of business on the grounds that they contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of a person (including the authority) as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

[The following is a public summary of the exempt information under S.100C (2) of the Local Government Act 1972.  Exempt minutes exist as a separate document.]

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 5 February 2018 be confirmed and signed as an accurate record of the proceedings, and that the outstanding actions be noted.