DMFD7 Car parking for essential operational Union Street staff

Currently there are 120 car parking spaces available for London Fire Commissioner (LFC) staff at Union Street. The existing car parking capacities, lease arrangements and associated costs are:

• Galliard Homes – provides 28 parking spaces. The current lease expires April 2020 with a mutual annual break clause after 12 months and on the anniversary of the lease. The rental is £30k per annum.
• Sawyer Street – provides 40 car parking spaces, six of which are electric vehicle charging facilities, and 10 motorcycle spaces. The present lease is for 200 years (from 1996) for the sole use of London Fire Brigade while the Grotto was used for training purposes. The rent is a peppercorn.
• Ewer Street – provides 17 parking spaces. These car parking spaces are incorporated into the lease of Union Street Offices and will cease with the expiry of the building lease in 2027.
• Southwark Training Centre and Winchester House – provides 35 car parking spaces, cycle storage for 30 bicycles and 10 motorcycles. The freehold is currently owned by the LFC.

LFC officers considered ending the current lease arrangements with Galliard Homes and entering in to a new arrangement now in order to remove the early break clause. However, following advice from property advisors Dron & Wright (D&W), it was recommended that the LFC should continue with the current lease arrangement until it ends on 30 April 2020 on existing terms and costs. This recommendation is based upon the fact that the LFC has, as part of the existing arrangement, paid Stamp Duty Land Tax to April 2020 on this site and if a new lease was entered into they would be paying Stamp Duty twice for the same initial two-year period.

When D&W approached Galliard Homes, they offered a new revisionary lease agreement. A revisionary lease is one entered into by both parties now, with a term date that only commences once the existing lease expires in April 2020. This arrangement uses the terms and conditions of the current lease, subject to minor changes, which includes removal of the annual break clause. They have offered a five-year lease, which will continue at the current cost of £30kpa for the first two years, then increase in line with the Retail Price Index thereafter. In order to secure this proposition, they require agreement now.

The new lease agreement with Galliard Homes will remove the annual break clause and secure LFC parking until April 2025. The lease will end two years before the current lease at Union Street which expires in 2027 and has resulted in preferential terms set out in the table below. Officers will carry out a review into the car parking provisions for staff based at Union Street in 2020.

This Decision ensures that the London Fire Brigade officers are able to continue to access necessary facilities beyond 2020, with the security of tenure and expenditure required. The Decision is also a key enabler for the sale of Southwark Training Centre and Fire Station, which is contributing to the Mayor’s aims for affordable housing in London.

The Public Sector Equality Duty – and the potential impacts of this decision on those with protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender, religion or belief, sexual orientation) – has been considered by the London Fire Commissioner and the Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience. No impacts have been identified.

The LFC has examined alternative potential car parking sites close to Union Street. Currently only one site is available to lease in the railway arches near Walden’s Grove, SE1. This site consists of seven arches, each with the potential to accommodate 15 car spaces. The rental cost is circa £200,000 per annum inclusive of rates and service charges, with an average cost per parking space £4,450 per annum.

This option is available but is not recommended due to cost per space compared with the cost of renting spaces at Galliard Homes.

The expenditure is to be funded through sums available to the Commissioner. There are no direct financial implications for the GLA.

Under section 9 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the London Fire Commissioner (the "Commissioner") is established as a corporation sole with the Mayor appointing the occupant of that office. Under section 327D of the GLA Act 1999, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the Mayor may issue to the Commissioner specific or general directions as to the manner in which the holder of that office is to exercise his or her functions.

By direction dated 1 April 2018, the Mayor set out those matters, for which the Commissioner would require the prior approval of either the Mayor or the Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience (the "Deputy Mayor").

Paragraph (b) of Part 2 of the said direction requires the Commissioner to seek the prior approval of the Deputy Mayor before “[a] commitment to expenditure (capital or revenue) of £150,000 or above as identified in accordance with normal accounting practices…”.

This decision seeks the Deputy Mayor's approval for the Commissioner to enter into a new five-year lease with Galliard Homes from 2020 at a cost of £155,508.