Decision details

The Council had been a Constituent Authority of the London Housing Consortium (LHC) since May 2006 and had nominated Elected Members to serve on the LHC Joint Committee.  The rationale for joining the LHC Joint Committee had been to work collaboratively with other London Councils to improve the procurement of housing and construction products and services.  The London Housing Consortium had been set up for that purpose in 1966.

The Council no longer relied on LHC for procurement solutions, preferring instead to use a mixture of its own procurement capability, main contractor services, alternative procurement consortia and sometimes including LHC.  LHC surpluses were now shared widely across the country resulting in a reduced annual return for the Council.  As a Constituent Member of LHC the council received an annual community benefit fund from LHC surpluses (conditional on attendances by Elected Members at LHC meetings) of £10,000.  It was envisaged that in a new LHC corporate entity such funds would continue to be available for former LHC Constituent Authorities.

Much had changed in the operations of the LHC in recent years and Members of the LHC Joint Committee recognised that the dynamic nature of LHC as a commercial enterprise was at odds with the democratic and regulatory processes that were required by local authorities.  It was felt that LHC would benefit from having more autonomy around its governance and organisational design, Job design and reward, Future provision of pension and financial modelling and risk management.

Consequently, the members of the LHC Joint Committee had asked for a review of LHC governance arrangements which concluded that the LHC Joint Committee be disbanded, and a new corporate entity established by LHC.  If the current lead authority, LB Hillingdon, withdrew from the Joint Committee and two or more Constituent Authorities wished the Joint Committee to continue, then one of them would have to act as lead authority.  The requirements for the lead authority were set out in the LHC Constitution.

The governance review leading to the proposal to withdraw from the LHC Joint Committee had identified new governance arrangements that were more appropriate to the current and future operations of LHC.  In establishing a new corporate entity LHC would be seeking participation from client organisations and other interested parties from across Great Britain, from local authorities, housing associations and other relevant sectors.  The design of the new LHC corporate entity would look to continue to offer grant funding to those Authorities continuing to participate in LHC and would encourage current Constituent Authorities to consider participation in the new corporate entity.

RESOLVED –

(1)   That Buckinghamshire Council withdraws as one of the ten Constituent Authorities of the LHC Joint Committee, as well as from the LHC Joint Committee, resulting in its potential disbandment in December 2022 at the earliest, thereby foregoing the £10,000 p.a. income from the LHC Joint Committee.

(2)   That Buckinghamshire Council would consider at a future meeting, the options for continued participation in the new LHC corporate entity when it is known in March 2022.