(a)

in May 2012 a strategic property review was undertaken in order to ascertain how efficiently the Council was using its land and buildings;

(b)

an external review was undertaken by Jones Lang LaSalle; this was funded by the Council’s successful bid to join the Local Government Association Capital & Assets Pathfinder Programme 2012/13;

(c)

the review confirmed the Council’s current management of its property demonstrated a significant number of strengths;

(d)

the Langage Business Park in Plympton was due to commence in 2014; this would result in the construction of 30,000sq.ft. of industrial space supporting approximately 82 jobs;

(e)

the lease arrangements for the Theatre Royal had been restructured enabling a £7million regeneration scheme;

(f)

terms had been agreed on 10 former schools sites and community centre site disposals in order to provide housing; approximately 544 new homes would be created with 49% specified as affordable;

(g)

the Council provided many of its services through the corporate estate generating a valuable income stream of over £6million per year; the commercial estate occupancy level was at 97% supporting over 300 businesses and approximately 2,670 jobs;

(h)

as one of Plymouth’s objectives was to become a low carbon area there were several sites identified for further investigation for renewable energy generation; these sites were ‘challenged’ sites from a redevelopment perspective however there was potential for interim development use for ground-mounted solar energy installations. Towards the south of the Langage site there was nine acres of buffer zone with visibility of the A38. Officers were in the process of establishing the viability of solar array sites at all three sites in Langage, St Budeaux and Ernesettle;

(i)

the Plymouth Dome had an agreement to the lease amended in 2013 to permit the opening of the upper floor as Gary Rhodes restaurant; the lease covered the entire building and would be developed in several stages;

(j)

land needed to be safeguarded for commercial development as well as for providing more homes;

(k)

building work had not yet commenced on the former school sites and community centre site disposals however it was expected that this would start within 6 – 18 months;

(l)

the Council had adopted the Corporate Landlord Model to ensure that corporate parameters were adopted to control operational asset decisions; rents were now going through the Corporate Centre to maintain more control;

(m)

officers had to maintain a balance between driving capital receipts and maintaining rental income;

(n)

officers agreed that Colin Campbell Court and Bretonside Bus Station were in need of redevelopment and regeneration however they were in active discussions with the private sector to enable the viability of this;

(o)

there were expected to be 544 new homes built across the nine former school and community centre sites;

(p)

the proposed housing developments for the former school and community centre sites were subject to planning approval;

(q)

officers would add their names to future reports to enable Members to contact them direct with any queries;

(1)

officers would include their name to future reports to enable Members to contact them direct with any queries;

(2)

the Working Plymouth Scrutiny panel recommend to the Cooperative Scrutiny Board that the Strategic Property Review is included on the panel’s work programme for 2014/15.