Agenda item

To submit a report by the Head of Highways, Waste and Property.

The report of the Head of Highways, Waste and Property incorporating the Corporate Asset Management Strategic Plan 2024-29 was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

The Strategic Plan was presented by Councillor Dafydd Rhys Thomas, Portfolio Member for Highways, Waste and Property as a high-level document which sets out the strategic direction and principles that will guide the Council’s asset management decision-making and processes for the period until 2029. He referred to the limitations on the Council’s budget which make the upkeep of all it assets in the way it would like increasingly challenging meaning that it will have to review its portfolio to ensure that the assets it holds are safe, accessible, and fit for purpose. The work of collecting and processing information about the Council’s portfolio of assets is essential in providing evidence and supporting decision making and is a work stream that is already underway. 

The Head of Highways, Waste and Property reported that the purpose of the Strategic Plan is to ensure that the Council has a financially and environmentally sustainable asset portfolio, rationalised to be fit for purpose and safe for the delivery of services. This will then ensure that the Council’s assets support and help deliver corporate priorities in line with the Council Plan. The Corporate Asset Management Strategic Plan is closely linked to the Capital Strategy which sets out the principles to be used as guidance for capital priorities and capital resource allocation across the Council’s services. The Council’s asset portfolio is varied but does not include those properties held under the Housing Revenue Account nor highways infrastructure. The Strategic Plan will be led by the Property Service in close collaboration with the Council’s other services which have asset interests such as schools, leisure centres and residential homes. The Head of Highways, Waste and Property said that strengthening the management of the Council’s assets will lead to better assets in the right locations driving efficiency and rationalisation and will also support the Council on its journey towards net zero.

The Chief Property and Asset Officer expanded on the four key priority areas set out in the Strategic Plan in relation to ensuring the suitability of assets, the sustainability of assets, managing assets collaboratively as a corporate resource and taking an approach to planning and decision making that is data driven. He referred to the importance of asset information and of the Council being in possession of accurate and up to date information about its assets so that decisions about those assets some of which are likely to be difficult in order to make the best use of scarce resources, are made on the basis of robust evidence.

Councillor Dyfed Wyn Jones, Vice-Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee reported back on the Committee’s discussions regarding the Asset Management Strategic Plan at its 12 March 2024 meeting. Points raised by the Committee at the meeting had included the ways in which the Plan helps the Council fulfil its corporate objectives, the affordability of the Plan in the current financial climate and the arrangements for monitoring progress and measuring achievement. The Committee has also asked whether in order to provide a fuller picture it would be appropriate to include additional information in the Strategic Plan about each asset type’s value, backlog maintenance requirements and planned maintenance costs. Having considered the Officers’ responses the Committee had resolved to recommend the Asset Management Strategic Plan 2024-29 to the Executive to be adopted by Full Council.

The Executive noted that the Council has a large historical portfolio of assets and that the capital requirements to modernise and upgrade its existing assets and deliver on its strategic objectives is in excess of £300m over the next 5 years. This being so Members acknowledged that as capital resources are squeezed and the Council continues to face budget pressures, consideration will have to be given to a range of options for managing the Council’s assets some of which will be radical and include rationalising the portfolio, adapting buildings where possible and looking at opportunities for co-locating services mindful also of the Council’s commitment towards realising its Decarbonisation and Net Zero Plan.

It was resolved to recommend the Asset Management Strategic Plan 2024-2029 to the Full Council for its approval.