Executive decision

City Council’s property portfolio options

(Date of issue: Tuesday 14 April 2009)

Carlisle City Council’s Executive, today (Tuesday 14 April), considered the way forward for the local authority’s property assets following feedback from businesses.

Carlisle City Council is developing a new approach to managing and using its property assets which will mean that property management has a higher profile within the City Council’s structure; the City Council will use, where appropriate, the private sector’s approach to property management; and it will strengthen the City Council’s investment capability.

As part of the process for putting in place new arrangements for property management, the City Council consulted businesses and tenants, during last December and January 2009, covering four industrial estates in the city: Kingstown, Rosehill, Durranhill and Willowholme as well as members of the overview and scrutiny committees.

There was support for change and it has established that one option across the city would not be the best way forward. There is also an expectation that the review would deliver more competition and choice in the commercial property market. The findings show that a strength, of the industrial estates, is their location and in part, their accessibility; tenants’ feedback confirmed this with more than half saying they would locate in the north of the city.

The City Council's Executive agreed to move forward to the next stage of the property review which will be to clarify the objectives for the portfolio and to advise on the options for its future management including the implications of different management or partnership arrangements. This will provide more detail on how the objectives of creating economic regeneration, income growth and added value will be achieved.

Cllr Mike Mitchelson, Leader of Carlisle City Council, said: "The feedback we have received from tenants has been valuable and has provided a big insight into what is important to them and how we can take on board the issues they have raised into the next stage of the process. We want to look at property, not simply as an income stream but also as a contributor to the future of the city's economic development. This process will take time as we want to ensure that we achieve the maximum benefits for the city’s future. The next step is to consider the legal, technical and financial aspects of managing our assets."