Meeting documents

Financial Arrangements

This appendix applies to all operational properties.

Commercial estate properties are not covered by these arrangements as they are subject to separate investment criteria.

The policy as a whole provides for an inclusive revenue charge for the occupation of all corporate property.

This is one of the cornerstones of the policy as a whole.

The objective of this appendix is to set out the mechanism for calculating and monitoring the financial arrangements of the policy.

Details of these arrangements are work in progress and further work is necessary to implement satisfactory arrangements.

The current financial arrangements are inconsistent. There is no direct financial revenue effect of occupying property. For certain properties outgoings are paid through Property Services budgets; wheras in other cases occupying departments have the budgetry responsibility.

These inconsistent arrangements apply particularly to rates and utilities. The objective is to realign budgets for property costs to Property Services with occupiers paying an overall revenue charge.

The proposed charges are intended to represent one single all inclusive amount covering the main areas.

The charges will be calculated in accordance with the following principles

• Any actual rent payable to private landlords will be ignored
  
• Rates and Utilities will be included at actual rates.
  
• Repairs & Maintenance will be charged as a breakdown of budget.
  
• Additional heads of expenditure may be included in support of council initiatives such as sustainability issues.

All expenditure has been categorised as under

• Rent
  
• Rates
  
• Repairs & Maintenance
  
• Utilities
  
• Facilities management

Different types of property attract differing methodologies in terms of valuation depending on the nature of any alternative market. Certain properties are specialist in nature and are generally valued by reference to cost or turnover rather than by reference to market evidence.