The Local Authority funding and resourcing challenges scrutiny project sub-group was scheduled to discuss updates on the council's property data and the ongoing project plan for its scrutiny work. The meeting's agenda included a review of the property data update, focusing on the implementation of the Civica system, and a discussion of the project plan for the sub-group's ongoing review of local authority funding and resourcing challenges.

Property Data Update

The meeting was scheduled to receive an update on the implementation of the Civica system, a web-based database, within the Property & Facilities Service. The aim of this implementation is to improve the quality of data for effective estate management and decision-making. The report outlined the progress made in various phases of the system's rollout, including data migration for asset lists, lease/rent roll data, compliance and repair/maintenance information, and condition surveys.

Phase 1 focused on migrating asset list data, establishing the total size and breakdown of the council's operational and commercial estates. The Existing Portfolio table detailed various asset types, such as allotments, car parks, libraries, and leisure centres, and the directorates responsible for them.

Phase 2 involved the migration of lease and rent roll data. The report indicated significant progress, with rent roll data successfully migrated into Civica, enabling the production of comprehensive rent roll reports. The recommended next steps included completing the setup of tenants within the Integra system, validating data uploads, and transferring outstanding balances before the planned decommissioning of legacy systems, Qube and Uniform, by the end of July 2026. Lease documents and floor plans were also being aligned with tenant and building records within Civica, with a target completion date of January 2026 for uploading remaining documents.

Phase 3 addressed compliance and repair/maintenance responsibilities. The Civica system's functionality for recording these responsibilities was highlighted, with the use of Co-pilot to generate lease summaries outlining responsibility allocations. The recommended next step was to confirm the optimal approach for storing this information within Civica by the end of March 2026.

Phase 4 detailed the progress on condition surveys, with data from 87 sites already entered into Civica. The recommended next step is to ensure all future condition surveys are purchased in a format that allows for automatic data loading into Civica.

Phase 5 focused on reporting capabilities within Civica. A data gap analysis was underway to identify where additional data inputs could enhance existing reports and enable better management information, with a completion target of May 2026. Examples of reports that can be generated include income reports, lease out reports, and compliance and facilities management reports.

The report also outlined risks associated with the project, such as potential billing discrepancies due to inaccurate data migration and reporting effectiveness being constrained by data gaps. Mitigation measures included end-to-end data reconciliation and ongoing data gap analysis.

Project Plan

The sub-group was scheduled to review the latest version of its project plan, which details the approach to scrutinising local authority funding and resourcing challenges. The plan outlined previous meetings, including discussions on the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and the Budget Monitoring Report, as well as an update on the Corporate Landlord function. The Corporate Landlord Model aims to centralise responsibility for all property-related functions to manage the council's estate more efficiently.

The project plan indicated that a further meeting would be convened once the central asset database, being developed through the implementation of the Tech Forge Cloud system, has been fully established. Members were to consider whether any recommendations should be made or if further information was required. The plan also noted that the final report would be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) in March.

The agenda also included standard items such as apologies for absence, minutes of the previous meeting, and declarations of interest and dispensations. There were also provisions for items of late business.