Agenda item

Cabinet Agreed

1. To extend the current Services Agreement with Hertfordshire Building Control until 31st March 2023 and delegate authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with Assistant Director, Legal and Democratic Services and Chief Financial Officer to agree future extensions.

2. To delegate authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Assistant Director, Legal and Democratic Services and Chief Financial Officer to agree any final and outstanding legal, technical, financial and operational matters to be concluded in effecting the proposed extension of contract noted in recommendation 1 or the LA1 function.

3. To continued with the appointment of Three Rivers District Council to perform the LA1 contract management function and the audit and issue of statutory notices as per the current arrangements.

4. To appoint East Hertfordshire District Council to perform the statutory notice LA1 function until 31st March 2023

5. To delegate authority to the Chief Executive, following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Commercial Strategy and Delivery, Assistant Director, Strategic Director (Corporate and Commercial Services), Assistant Director, Legal and Democratic Services and Chief Financial Officer, to agree and finalise any future arrangements for statutory building control including the LA1 function beyond 31st March 2023.

Decision

1. Extend the current Services Agreement with Hertfordshire Building Control until 31st March 2023 and delegate authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with Assistant Director, Legal and Democratic Services and Chief Financial Officer to agree future extensions.

2. Delegate authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Assistant Director, Legal and Democratic Services and Chief Financial Officer to agree any final and outstanding legal, technical, financial and operational matters to be concluded in effecting the proposed extension of contract noted in recommendation 1 or the LA1 function.

3. Continue the appointment of Three Rivers District Council to perform the LA1 contract management function and the audit and issue of statutory notices as per the current arrangements.

4. Appoint East Hertfordshire District Council to perform the statutory notice LA1 function until 31st March 2023

5. Delegate authority to the Chief Executive, following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Commercial Strategy and Delivery, Assistant Director, Strategic Director (Corporate and Commercial Services), Assistant Director, Legal and Democratic Services and Chief Financial Officer, to agree and finalise any future arrangements for statutory building control including the LA1 function beyond 31st March 2023.

Corporate Objectives

A clean, safe and enjoyable environment Ensuring efficient, effective and modern service delivery

Statutory Officer Comments:

Monitoring Officer

A resolution was passed on 18th September 2019 to delegate statutory Building Control functions to one of the Building Control authorities. This delegation remains in place but, for completeness, as part of the LA1 function is being changed to a different authority this report brought to Cabinet for approval. Further delegations are being proposed so that future commercial decisions on the LA1 function can be agreed by officers. To extend the current Services Agreement, a deed of variation will need to be completed to give effect of the contract extension and also to formalise any changes to the role of LA1. This report was not on the Forward Plan and is reported to Cabinet as an urgent decision without giving the usual 28 days’ notice of an Executive Decision. The decision is urgent because the current Service Level Agreement ends in August and needs to be extended to ensure that the Building Control service can continue to operate. The Chairman of the Finance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee has been consulted and has agreed that this report be treated as an urgent decision as it cannot reasonably be deferred to the next Cabinet meeting in September

Deputy s151 Officer:

The 22/23 budget is sufficient to fund the current LA1 service agreement. Following further negotiations if additional costs are agreed and there is not sufficient budget available in existing approved budgets the service will be required to seek member approval for growth, in line with the current Financial Regulations.

Advice

Farida Hussain explained that the current contract under which eight local authorities instruct Hertfordshire Building Control services was due to expire in August this year. Approval was sought to extend that contract to the end of the financial year and to provide delegation to the Chief Exec in consultation with various officers to agree any further extension as they were still working through some detail. Authorisation was sought to delegate the statutory sign off to East Hertfordshire Council. Up until now, Three Rivers Council had performed the role, it was not something that the Hertfordshire Building Control can do, as it was statutory, and only a local authority could perform that function.

If approval was given, any future extensions could be agreed by the Chief Exec in consultation with the portfolio holder to speed things up so that it does not have to come back through Cabinet.

Cllr Williams said that this was coming to Cabinet, as they need to have the arrangement in place for August otherwise, they would find themselves with no one administering the process.

Farida Hussain said that it would mean that the service would need to come back in house and they do not have the resource to provide this function.

Cllr Williams commented that the process of going to Hertfordshire Building Control has been successful so they do not wish to reverse that function.

Recommendation Agreed