Briefing

Watford Council and Borough Council

Provision of assistance of Building Control Services

Summary:-

There is an opportunity to enter into a commercial agreement with to assist with the provision of Building Control Services for a period of 6 months. Borough Council has resource capacity to undertake the work with existing resources and has the opportunity to take advantage of the commercial opportunity. The timescales associated with Dacorums urgent need preclude referring the matter to Leadership Team.

Context: -

Dacorum Borough Council (DBC) has approached (WBC) with a view to provide management and Building Control Officer (BCO) support. DBC is has greatly diminished management capacity due to the departure of two team leaders and 3 BCO officers. It is recognised by both parties that the support provided by WBC will be limited based on our current resource capacities and workloads and a review will be included at 3 months.

Services and Payment:-

WBC intend to offer the following services to DBC for the specified fees. The agreement would be in place for a 6 month period (with a 3 month review).

WBC Description Total cost Quarterly Payments Services in arrears of

Standard Team Leader support 2 Days £28,834 (Exc £14,147 (Exc VAT) per week (7 hour days) VAT)

Optional Building Control Surveyor £50.28 per Invoiced as required 1 support as required to a hour (Exc VAT) to a maximum maximum 2 days per week (7 £9,083 (Exc VAT) hour days) (£352 Exc VAT per 7 hour day)

Optional Plan checking by Watford Minimum Invoiced as required 2 Building Control at 75% of £165.00 per £165 per plan Dacorum plan fee (£220.00) in plan each case WBC Financial Implications:-

Standard – Team Leader

WBC of employs costs of £5,245.75 per month (5 days per week) or circa £238.44 per day employing a Building Control Team Leader.

DBC would pay £4,805.67 (exc vat) per month for 2 day a week of Team Leaders time, circa £546.10 per day.

WBC intends to provide the service utilising existing capacity and the agreement is estimated to result in a net benefit of £28,834 to the Council.

Optional 1 – BCO

WBC employs a number of BCO’s which one average costs circa £23.06 per hour and would utilise existing resource to provide the service. DBC would pay £50.28 per hour.

There would be a net benefit to WBC of circa £27.22 per hour of BCO time requested.

Optional 2 – Plan Checking

The formalised arrangement would give rise to the possibility of increased plan checking work from DBC, which would result in increased income of £165 per plan.

Other benefits:-

It is considered that the arrangement will also be beneficial for the following reasons:

LABC reputation - Assisting DBC to maintain good BC services will help maintain positive perceptions of Local Authority Building Control (LABC) in , which is important when considering private sector competitions.

Experience – The arrangement will give our BC Team Leader the opportunity to experience how services are delivered in a different authority who have digital and flexible working set up. There is an opportunity to learn from this and gain experience which may benefit our own services in the future.

Resource implications:-

WBC’s Building Control Team Leader has been working closely with DBC over the past month to ensure that the arrangement can operate smoothly. We are confident there is adequate capacity within the team to manage the arrangement for the specified 6 month period, however the 3 month review and two week termination period give added comfort that there will be no adverse implications on WBC performance or standards. Recommendation:-

That the Head of Development Management be authorised to enter into the commercial agreement, subject to appropriate Terms and Conditions prepared by the Council’s Legal Team.