Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Sue Anderson, Keith Ferry, Varsha Parmar, Christine Robson, Krishna Suresh, Antonio Weiss and John Higgins.

Councillor Paul Osborn was in attendance via telephone.

RESOLVED:  To note that no interests were declared.

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions had been received.

To receive any public questions received in accordance with paragraph 16 of the Executive Procedure Rules.

Questions will be asked in the order in which they were received.  There will be a time limit of 15 minutes for the asking and answering of public questions.

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, 16 March 2020.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk  

No person may submit more than one question].

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions had been received.

To receive any Councillor questions received in accordance with paragraph 17 of the Executive Procedure Rules.

Questions will be asked in the order agreed with the relevant Group Leader by the deadline for submission and there be a time limit of 15 minutes.

[The deadline for receipt of Councillor questions is 3.00 pm, 16 March 2020].

RESOLVED:  To note that

(1)          with the exception of Question 1 submitted by Councillor Paul Osborn in relation to Covid 19, all questions were withdrawn;

(2)          in relation to Question 1, Councillor Adam Swersky provided a detailed response and Councillor Osborn expressed his support of the response given and the officer briefings that had been provided.

RESOLVED:  To note the contents of the Key Decision Schedule for the period March – May 2020.

Report of the Divisional Director of Housing

RESOLVED:  That

(1)          the Divisional Director of Housing be authorised to undertake a procurement process for a contractor or contractors to deliver a variety of Security, H&S Compliance & common parts works, including fire safety works as part of general improvements to the safety of HRA dwelling stock, funded entirely from HRA Capital resources in financial years 2020 and 2021 (rolling over into year 2022);

(2)          the Corporate Director of Community be authorised, following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Resources, together with the Director of Finance, to enter into the procurement and implementation of the contract(s) to the value specified in the capital programme.

Reason for Decision:  Due to the estimated value of the contract, Cabinet approval was required to procure and enter into the contract to comply with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  As set out in the report.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member/Dispensation Granted:  None.

Report of the Divisional Director of Housing

Having noted the confidential appendix it was

RESOLVED:  That

(1)          the criteria for identifying suitable sites for this project set out in Section 2.1.1 – 2.1.5 of the report, be noted and approved;

(2)          the disposal of up to five small vacant HRA sites, as set out in Appendix A to the report, and paragraph 2.2 (or replacement sites identified in accordance with Recommendation 4 below) at less than market value, including at nil consideration, to Community Led Housing groups to deliver housing to contribute to the GLA’s Community Led Housing target, be authorised in principle;

(3)          the Corporate Director of Community be authorised to take all appropriate decisions and actions to dispose of, including at less than market value or nil consideration, the sites to approved Community Led Housing groups, following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing (subject to planning approval and appropriate finance and legal arrangements being in place);

(4)          the Corporate Director of Community, following consultation with the Portfolio Holder of Housing and ward councillors, be authorised to identify further suitable HRA sites for disposal via this method if the sites identified in this report were found to be unsuitable.

Reason for Decision:  To enable local community groups to meet their own housing needs and to support the GLA’s Community Led Housing agenda.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  As set out in the report.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member/Dispensation Granted:  None.

Report of the Corporate Director of Community

RESOLVED:  That

(1)          the Interim Strategy and Action Plan appended to the report, be approved, noting that those projects requiring additional resources were subject to an approved business case prior to commencement;

(2)          the initial resourcing requirements, set out at paragraph 4.10 of the report, be noted;.

(3)          the wider ecological implications of the human-induced changes that were occurring to our climate be noted;

(4)          the scale and pace of transformation needed across both the organisation and the borough as a whole in order to address the 2030 target date for carbon neutrality, be noted;

(5)          it be noted that whilst the Council would provide local leadership, moving towards carbon neutrality for the borough as a whole involved major systems change and required the combined action of national, regional, and local government, together with widespread engagement and action from those living and working in our borough; 

(6)          the Corporate Director – Community, be authorised following consultation with the Leader of the Council, to agree a process for priority allocation of Carbon Offset Funds to contribute towards carbon reduction initiatives.

Reason for Decision:  To enable further work to be progressed in response to the previously declared Climate Emergency.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  As set out in the report.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member/Dispensation Granted:  None.

Report of the Corporate Director of Community

RESOLVED:  That

(1)          Harrow Council enter into a Framework Agreement with LASER Energy Buying Group (LASER) headed by Kent County Council for the supply of energy to Harrow’s corporate sites and schools for a period of four years starting on 1 October 2020 ;

(2)          the proposed purchase of electricity on the basis of a green 100% renewable tariff be agreed;

(3)          the Corporate Director, Community be authorised following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Environment and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Resources, to enter into the LASER Energy Buying Group Framework for the provision of gas and electricity.

Reasons for Decision: 

·                     To procure energy at competitive rates for the Council’s 573 corporate sites and schools through an efficient and government approved process.

·                     The purpose of green electricity will contribute to decarbonisation of the grid and reductions in the carbon dioxide emissions attributable to the Council’s energy usage, in response to the previously declared climate emergency.

·                     The Council’s current energy supply contract was due to expire on the 30 September 2020 and a new contract was needed to ensure continuity of supply.  In order to guarantee that the Council can participate in future procurements of energy beyond the current period of the contract a firm commitment to using Laser’s framework agreement 2020 – 2024 must be made by 31 March 2020.  This will enable the Council to take advantage of wholesale price fluctuations while the wholesale energy market was favourable.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  As set out in the report.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member/Dispensation Granted:  None.

Report of the Director of Strategy and Partnerships

RESOLVED:  That

(1)          the activity which had been undertaken to date and the planned actions be noted; and

(2)          the areas currently being funded from monies received from Government to support Brexit locally remained the priority areas for this funding to be spent on throughout 2020.

Reason for Decision:  The Council had a duty under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to put in place adequate resilience arrangements in the borough.  As the impact of the UKs’ exit from the European Union on the 31 January 2020 still had a number of potential scenarios following the end of the Transition Period in December 2020, it was important that the Council planned accordingly.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  As set out in the report.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member/Dispensation Granted:  None.

Report of the Corporate Director of Resources

Having noted the confidential appendix it was

RESOLVED:  That

(1)          MS Dynamics be procured as Harrow Council’s cloud based ERP system via a compliant direct contract award to Microsoft under the Kent Commercial Services 4 Professional Services Framework;

(2)          the associated HR system required for the MS Dynamics ERP system be procured from Loki Systems via a compliant direct award under the Kent Commercial Services 4 Professional Services Framework; 

(3)          PwC, an experienced and expert ERP implementation partner, be procured to support the implementation and successful transition from our current SAP system to the new ERP system via a compliant direct contract award under the Management Consultancy Framework 2 or Crown Commercial Services G-Cloud Digital Marketplace Framework;

(4)          the Corporate Director of Resources be authorised, following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Resources, to award the contracts detailed in Resolutions (1), (2) and (3) above;

(5)          a capital budget of £1.65m be added into the 2020/21 Capital Programme for the ERP Replacement project as set out in the financial implications section and detailed in Appendix 1 to the report.

Reason for Decision:  SAP, the current supplier of our ERP system, was withdrawing commercial and technical support for the version in use by the Council.  A major functional update was required for HMRC compliance in March 2021 which would require a costly upgrade to the current system.  The benefits of doing this upgrade were not seen as adding value for money so last year Cabinet agreed to procure a new system and a market analysis of possible solutions was carried out.  This included reviewing a proposal by Microsoft and PwC that the Council become the first local authority to introduce Microsoft (MS) Dynamics. 

The market analysis showed that there were at least two software suppliers who could meet most of our high level requirements.  However, only MS Dynamics would meet our longer term strategic needs. 

Its introduction would allow us to develop a single IT platform, based in the cloud that formed the core of all our operations.  This would deliver significant benefits including allowing us to join up our IT systems and greatly improve our data, and how we could use it to plan and continuously improve.  We would also be able to consolidate and extend the use of all our Microsoft products (including Windows 10/365) to reduce costs, improve technical support and develop better business resilience.

There are therefore major benefits in procuring MS Dynamics as our SAP replacement system which would provide much greater economic and organisational value than introducing other systems. 

To reduce risk and deliver value for money, based on current Gartner research, the Council wished to implement a Microsoft ERP replacement using PwC – the only global gold partner with relevant solution experience.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  As set out in the report.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member/Dispensation Granted:  None.

[Call-in did not apply to the Resolution as a waiver of Call-in has been obtained from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 313.