This meeting was scheduled to receive updates about the council's property investments and treasury management activity for the second quarter of 2024/25. It also included updates on the committee's work programme.

Q2 Investment Property Report

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the capital value of the council's investment property portfolio for the year ending 31 March 2024.

The report set out a number of key performance indicators that are monitored on a quarterly basis, including:

• Rental income
• Arrears
• Vacancy rates
• Tenant retention

The report also provided summaries of the markets in each of the sectors where the council holds investments, highlighting the economic outlook for each sector.

There is a large amount of variation in the performance of the portfolio, with some sectors performing better than others. As of the 31 March 2024, the overall value of the investment portfolio was £539,580,800, producing an annual rental income of £26,208,000. This represents an average gross yield of 4.9%. However, after accounting for bad debts and borrowing costs, the overall yield of the portfolio is 2.1%.¹

The report pack states:

The investment property portfolio plays an important part in the Council’s capital and revenue strategies.

The report pack also acknowledges that:

Runnymede has a relatively large investment portfolio compared to other local authorities.

In order to improve the council's decision making and analysis of property performance, it has subscribed to MSCI, a real estate data and analytics company.

The report included reference to the council's Asset Management Strategy, which sets out how the council manages its investment property portfolio.

2024-25 Mid Year Treasury Management Report

This report was scheduled to update the committee on treasury management activity and performance during the first half of 2024/25.

It states:

Officers herewith confirm that during H1 2024/25, the Council complied with all its legislative and regulatory requirements.

The report provides information about the council's borrowing, investments and interest rates. It includes forecasts about the future direction of interest rates, provided by the council's Treasury Advisors, LINK Group.

It also includes a schedule of all of the council's borrowings and investments.

The report pack includes a large amount of information about the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. This act gives the government powers to restrict the borrowing of councils. In particular, councils are now prevented from borrowing to buy investment assets primarily for yield, meaning that they can only buy them if they intend to use them to deliver services.

The report notes:

The MHCLG ² has policy responsibility for the Prudential Framework ³ under which local authorities borrow and invest.

Because Runnymede has borrowed extensively to buy investment assets, this act has major implications for its future financial activities.

The report acknowledges that Runnymede received a non-statutory 'Best Value Notice' from MHCLG (then DLUHC) in December 2023.

It states:

There is an ongoing dialogue with MHCLG focusing on the Council’s risk management and resilience (including continued focus on existing borrowing levels, funding and liquidity risks and strengthening cash flows from operations through various cost saving initiatives).

Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the progress made on its two workstreams for the 2024/25 municipal year.

Workstream 1: Resident Enquiry Response Times

The report states that the Assistant Chief Executive (s151 Officer) provided an update about this workstream at the October 2024 meeting. The Corporate Head of Customer, Digital & Collection Services is scheduled to provide a further update to the committee's February 2025 meeting.

Workstream 2: Organisation of sustainability workstreams within the council

This workstream is focused on the council's response to the Climate Emergency that it declared in 2019.

At the October 2024 meeting, the Climate Change team reported back on a survey that it had undertaken of other district and borough councils in Surrey about how they organize their work on sustainability. The team is now in the process of surveying Runnymede's own Corporate Heads and other officers to understand how they engage with sustainability practices. The results of this survey are scheduled to be presented to the committee's February 2025 meeting.