EX291002-07an1

EXECUTIVE – 29 OCTOBER 2002

Maintenance Backlog/Condition of Property

The current assessed need for repairs and maintenance to the Council’s property is £50.576million. The budget for 2002/03 is £5.402million. These figures exclude the assessed need and budget for works delegated to schools. At present a disproportionate amount of the budget is spent on urgent works which provides poor value for money and has little impact on the backlog. However, funding from other sources has been used to deal with repair and maintenance needs, in particular the NDS and Condition funding provided by the DfES for school premises, and capital funding when it has been used to replace or refurbish existing accommodation. The Council has also provided funding for a four-year programme for improvements to the Council’s buildings. Minor Works budgets are used to deal with repairs which would otherwise not be dealt with from the Repair and Maintenance budget. An additional £500,000 per year for repairs and maintenance from 2003/04 was included in the Medium Term Financial Plan. However, the Executive on 1^st October agreed the process for setting the 2003/04 budget which uses 2002/03 as a base and requires bids for everything other than certain unavoidable pressures. The need for the additional funding will therefore be reconsidered during the budget setting process..

The Asset Management Plan includes an assessment of the condition of the Council’s property based on the DTLR categories. This indicates that although there is a substantial amount of outstanding maintenance the condition of the Council’s property does not at present seriously affect Council services, although as mentioned above the Council’s property does not generally provide good working environments or a favourable image of the Council.

For many years the use of the Repair and Maintenance budget has been strictly prioritised to ensure that the money is spent on those works which are necessary to keep premises safe, wind and water-tight and open for business. This is one of the reasons why the appearance and general working conditions have deteriorated. It has however meant that temporary closure of Council premises has been rare. To ensure that any proposals for dealing with the backlog are effective and give good value it is important that there is thorough analysis of the backlog. This should also inform Council’s overall strategies for asset management. Analysis is being undertaken.

There is unlikely to be a single solution to the maintenance backlog. It should however be possible for it to be dealt with over a reasonable period of time by continuing to prioritise and target use of available funding, increase funding to the level where the balance between spend on planned and urgent works is more effective, rationalisation of assets based on the Council’s strategic priorities but also taking into account analysis of the repair and maintenance backlog, and continued use of other sources of funding including PFI when appropriate.