(a)

the three year sustainable balanced budget would be submitted to  Cabinet on 10 December 2013; the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement would be announced on 5 December 2013; it was anticipated that the net revenue budget would reduce from £212.5m to £201m in 2014/145;

(b)

work had been undertaken to restructure long term debt and to look at better rates of return from longer term investments (this would achieve a saving in 2014/15 of £1m;

(c)

the creation of an innovative affordable housing loan scheme of up to £50m would encourage more houses to be built in the city;

(d)

the proposed change to the council tax support scheme to reduce the contribution from 25 percent to 20 percent for those people having to pay council tax for the first time this year; there was also a proposal to reduce the cost of a Liability Order from £83 to £60;

(e)

the corporate landlord initiative which pulled together all property related budget was delivering annual savings of £200,000;

(f)

solar  panels had been installed on five main corporate buildings and was generating over £10,000 of energy savings this financial year to  date; a further 10 properties would be fitted with panels this financial year;

(g)

LED lamps had been installed in the Theatre Royal car park; the award of the LED street lighting contract would be made in March 2014 with installation commencing in June 2014;

(h)

the council held a substantial land and property portfolio comprising of 700 assets with a value in the region of £351m and a commercial estate comprising of 1770 interests with a value of approximately £136m; the commercial estate generated an annual income stream of approximately £6.8m per year (this income was utilised to fund front line services whilst supporting economic development across the city);

(i)

a strategic property review had been undertaken to ascertain how efficient the council was using its land and buildings; the review found that the current management of the operational and commercial estate demonstrated a significant number of strengths;

(j)

both the Land and Property and Strategic Development teams had achieved tangible results and successes, which included –

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the implementation of a direct development employment accommodation scheme of 30,000 sq ft at Langage;

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the restructuring of lease arrangements and realignment of funding had enabled the £7m regeneration of the Theatre Royal;

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the agreement to dispose of nine surplus former schools and community sites and the delivery of 544 new homes;

?

the support of 326 businesses and 2670 jobs through the 97 percent occupancy levels of the council’s commercial property estate;

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development of land at Derriford to provide new homes, a new primary school, a community park and a new spine road;

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negotiations to develop a new spectator grandstand for Plymouth Argyle, a new ice area, 120 bed hotel, 12 screen cinema, shops, restaurants and a new car park;

(k)

work was currently taking place to acquire new development sites for marine industries as part of the City Deal with discussions continuing with the MOD and the Cabinet Office to identify the necessary funding.

(l)

there had been no significant financial impact of transferring assets to the community sector;

(m)

the Cabinet Member undertook to provide information on the number of properties that were Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant;

(n)

the 700 assets which made up the corporate estate contained both land and property;  work was ongoing to ensure that these assets were being utilised correctly, although it was recognised that assets did need to be transferred to the voluntary community sector (at a nominal rent) in order to support the city as a whole.