Agenda and minutes

The Leader introduced the first virtual Cabinet meeting held by the Council. He noted that the Cabinet meeting in April had to be cancelled to allow the Council to focus on the emergency measures to maintain critical services and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. He thanked all staff and volunteers involved in dealing with this crisis and ensuring front line services were still being delivered.

Councillor Coleman added that it had been a terrible situation for the NHS staff and care homes. But the Council was operating together with them to ensure there was enough testing and PPE available.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 2 March 2020 be confirmed and signed as an accurate record of the proceedings, and that the outstanding actions be noted.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Sue Macmillan.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

Councillor Coleman stated that this report was seeking approval for a Social Value Strategy to be adopted to introduce a mandatory requirement for all procurement activities over £100,000 to generate a minimum 10% in social value.

The aim was to ensure social value activity aligned with Hammersmith and Fulham’s Industrial Strategy, H&F Vision, and pledges related to Climate Emergency.  It would promote a progressive approach to the procurement of works, goods and services.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

1.            To approve the Social Value Strategy (attached as Appendix 1 of the report).

2.            To agree that all tendered contracts above £100,000 (including those procured from frameworks where permitted by the framework rules) have a minimum of 10% of the total score allocated to Social Value. This will increase to 20% by 2023.

3.            To agree that all commissioning and procurement over £100,000 should deliver a minimum of 10% Social Value by suppliers and social value key performance indicators (KPIs) will be part of their contract terms. This will increase to 20% by 2023. For contracts under this value, Social Value will be discretionary.

4.            To agree the adoption of the national Themes Outcomes and Measures (TOMs) Framework for social value measurement (Appendix 2) for all contracts over £100,000.

5.            To agree to provide regular reporting to the Cabinet Member for Finance and Commercial Revenue and quarterly reporting to Cabinet on implementation of the strategy. This will include quantitative figures under the TOM framework both committed to and delivered by suppliers.  

6.            To agree to establish a mechanism for regular reporting to the relevant Policy and Accountability Committee (PAC).

Councillor Jones stated the full reasons for the recommendations to refuse the applications for a Neighbourhood Forum and a Neighbourhood Area were described in the report.

The Council had assessed the applications and had found that the current distribution of the forum membership was not drawn from different places across the proposed neighbourhood area. Further, the membership was not representative of the area sought for designation with respect to sections of the community and business and education sectors within the area.

As a consequence of the recommendation to refuse the application for the forum, officers had also recommended that the application for the neighbourhood area should be refused, as alone it would serve no purpose.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

That Cabinet:

1.    Refuses the application to designate the Avonmore, Brook Green and Addison Neighbourhood Steering group as a Neighbourhood Forum.

2.    Refuses the application to designate Avonmore, Brook Green as a Neighbourhood Area.

Councillor Jones informed that the report requested approval for an additional budget of £526,000 to cover additional security and other costs incurred due to the delay in obtaining planning approval for the scheme by the Greater London Authority (GLA) to be able to start demolition. In addition, the Council’s JV partner for the development, Stanhope, had advised it could not meet its contractual obligation to secure funding for the project. Therefore, the Council would need to secure and manage the site against illegal occupation until the development phase could start under an alternative strategy.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

That Cabinet approves an additional budget of £526,000 for the Watermeadow Court development project to cover the unforeseen costs set out in paragraphs 11,12 and 13 of the report  to be funded from capital receipts.

This report has two appendices which contain information exempt within the meaning of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and are not for publication. The appendices have therefore been circulated to Cabinet Members only.

Any discussions on the contents of an exempt appendix will require Cabinet to pass the proposed resolution identified at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and the press from the proceedings for that discussion.

Councillor Jones stated that this report was seeking approval to terminate the Watermeadow Court Land Sale Agreement, so the Council would be in the position to find a different approach to developing the site and would target maximising the delivery of affordable housing across the site.

The Leader praised the work done by Jo Rowlands, Strategic Director of Economy, and her team to improve considerably this scheme.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

That Cabinet:

1.    Notes that Appendix A and B are not for publication on the basis that they contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) as set out in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

2.    Approves the termination of the WMC Land Sale Agreement and delegates authority to the Strategic Director for the Economy, in consultation with the Borough Solicitor, to agree the final form of the legal document(s) of a “Deed of Variation” required for the termination and to enter into it;

3.    Approves the payment of £3,491,066 (to be funded from a new general fund capital budget financed by an increase in the Council’s Capital Financing Requirement) to the HFS Developments 2 Ltd (being the joint venture company established pursuant to the Joint Venture Agreement) to terminate the WMC Land Sale Agreement in line with the payment structure as set out in the detailed analysis section 15 below; and

4.    Approves to vary the ESH Land Sale Agreement to extend the conditional period to 14 June 2021 by way of a deed of variation and enter into it.

This report has one appendix which contain information exempt within the meaning of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and is not for publication. The appendix has therefore been circulated to Cabinet Members only.

Any discussions on the contents of an exempt appendix will require Cabinet to pass the proposed resolution identified at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and the press from the proceedings for that discussion.

Councillor Culhane stated that the Council had a statutory responsibility to ensure that there was an adequate supply of good quality Alternative Provision (AP)  and that all children and young people of compulsory school age would have access to a school or a form of Alternative Provision. This included offering a broad range of support, including short-term intervention for pupils at risk of exclusion and full-time/longer-term placements as an alternative to permanent exclusion. He thanked the secondary school Headteachers in the borough for working together with the Council on this report.

Councillor Coleman praised the report and the additional benefits it would bring by creating new jobs and serving the community, as well as taking into account environmental issues.

The Leader thanked Councillor Culhane, Jan Parnell, Assistant Director of Education, and Gary Kynaston, Headteacher of Hammersmith Academy, for their involvement on this report, which would significantly improve the service provided.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

That Cabinet: 

1.    Notes that Appendices 3 and 4 are not for publication on the basis that they contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) as set out in paragraph 3 or information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings under paragraph 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

2.    Approves the Procurement Strategy as set out in Appendix 1. 

3.    Approves the award of the Alternative Provision services contract to TBAP Multi-Academy Trust for the period of 1^st June 2020 until 31^st August 2022 for the total of £6,313,311.

This report has one appendix which contain information exempt within the meaning of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and is not for publication. The appendix has therefore been circulated to Cabinet Members only.

Any discussions on the contents of an exempt appendix will require Cabinet to pass the proposed resolution identified at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and the press from the proceedings for that discussion.

The Leader stated that since the Cabinet report was published, he had become aware that the Parks Commission, who were doing some excellent work with the intention of reporting in the Autumn, had produced an interim report which should be ready to be considered at the June Cabinet meeting or later.  Accordingly, he decided to postpone consideration of this report until Cabinet could consider the interim findings of the Parks Commission.

The Leader added that the Parks Commission’s early findings could impact on the procurement strategy.  It was important that the residents could have the opportunity to influence both the future strategy for the Council’s parks and open spaces and future procurement processes.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

That this report be withdrawn

The Key Decision List was noted.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 - ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Proposed resolution:

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.       

COVID-19 pandemic

The Leader stressed that the Council’s priority was saving lives and keeping people safe. It was also focusing on the welfare of its citizens and on ways to help local business to recuperate in an economic projected to shrink until 2023. He added that the Council was lobbing the central government to work on a large-scale plan with the G20 as this was the scale of the action needed to get the economy moving again to help London and the rest of the country up and running. A report would be brought to the next Cabinet meeting on this issue.

Councillor Jones confirmed that the Council would be bringing forward a plan about recovery and economic regeneration at the next meeting. He thanked officers from the Economy team for their continuous support and engagement with local business in all sectors who were facing extreme challenges.

Councillor Coleman informed that the NHS in London had prepared a paper that would fundamentally shift the way integrated health and care would be delivered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Councillor Coleman was concerned that local authorities were not given any chance to comment on it and there was no time for proper scrutiny. He had written a response from the borough to the local Clinical Commissioning Group and asked them to pass it on to NHS London stating that local authorities needed authentic partnership working.

The Leader suggested publishing Councillor Coleman’s letter on the website and bringing a paper on the issue to Cabinet.

The Leader stated that there had been a degree of confusion following the Prime Minister speech on 10 May on coronavirus, as it was unclear and raised many questions. The Council was seeking clarification, but meanwhile the advice to Council’s non key-workers staff and residents was to stay at home, keep safe and not use public transport.

The Leader concluded the meeting thanking H&F CAN and the 2,200 volunteers carrying out consistent inspirational work.