DMFD251 Headquarters Parking Provision – Lease Renewal for 98-118 Southwark Bridge Road

1.1    Report LFC-24-096 to the London Fire Commissioner (LFC) explains that London Fire Brigade (LFB) headquarters (HQ) at Union Street currently benefits from 85 parking spaces, provided by three separate parking areas in the vicinity. Parking provision consists of the following:
•    Southwark Bridge Road car park, which provides 28 parking spaces via a lease agreement with Galliard (Southwark) UK Limited. The current lease was granted in April 2020, for five years. That parking provision is the subject of this decision.
•    Sawyer Street, which provides 40 car-parking spaces (six of which have electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities); 10 motorcycle spaces; and a bicycle storage area. This is owned by the LFC on a leasehold basis that expires in 2196, and has a peppercorn (nil) rent. Sawyer Street is for the sole use of LFB.
•    Ewer Street, which provides 17 parking spaces linked to the lease of Union Street HQ offices. This parking provision will cease in March 2027, when the Union Street lease expires. The following should be noted: 
o    The lease for LFB HQ, at 169 Union Street, expires on 18 March 2027. Options are being considered, and feasibility studies are ongoing, to support the future location of a new LFB HQ. However, a final decision is not expected until spring 2025. It has already been determined that an interim HQ premises will be required for approximately two years after the Union Street lease expires. Communications are ongoing with the Union Street landlord, Brockton Everlast, regarding options for the LFC to extend the current lease to March 2029. 
o    To ensure operational incidents are managed and controlled appropriately, LFB operates a flexible duty system rota. This ensures sufficient senior operational officers are available for deployment. Over 200 senior officers are based across LFB’s estate, with approximately 100 of these based at LFB HQ. These officers are mobilised in line with their specialist attributes; and are expected to arrive at an incident within 30 minutes. The current requirement for car-parking provision at LFB HQ was recently subject to review, in liaison with LFB Central Operations. LFB would generate a saving by not renewing the lease for parking provision at Southwark Bridge Road; however, it would mean a 32 per cent reduction of senior officer parking. This would present a risk to effective deployment, and thus to meeting LFB policy and process in respect of incident management. 
 

2.1    The current lease for the Southwark Bridge Road car park expires in April 2025. It does not have security of tenure as defined in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, and there is no automatic right to renew. Without a new lease, the landlord may insist on LFC ceasing use of the car park, until a new lease is formally negotiated and terms agreed. Negotiating and putting a new lease in place takes, on average, approximately six months. Sanderson Weatherall, managing agents to the LFC, advises that the demand for parking provision near Union Street is high in relation to supply.
2.2    The proposed lease value, as detailed in Part 2 of this report, has been benchmarked against comparable car-parking evidence within a one-mile radius of Union Street. Most of this evidence relates to single-use spaces, the main parking provision within this area. Therefore, proportionate adjustments have been made to reflect the requirement for 28 spaces, to achieve best value. As the current lease falls outside security of tenure, this permits a more flexible negotiating position on behalf of the LFC, and the opportunity to renew the lease based on a new term. This provides flexibility to address the circumstances around emerging plans in respect of a new LFB HQ. 
2.3    The landlord has confirmed they are open to starting negotiations on a renewing the lease, subject to negotiation, terms and contract. The proposed terms in respect of negotiating a reversionary lease are presented in Part 2 of this decision.
2.4    The risk remains that mutually agreeable terms within the proposed budget cannot be negotiated with the landlord. In this case, the LFC will have no option but to vacate when the lease expires in 2025. In these circumstances, alternative provision could be sought on the open market. To mitigate this risk, Part 2 of this report presents the proposed approach, budget and key terms to inform negotiation for future agreement. 
 

3.1    The LFC and the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and the Fire Service (Deputy Mayor) are required to have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010) when taking decisions. This, in broad terms, involves understanding the potential impact of policy and decisions on different people; taking this into account; and then evidencing how decisions were reached.
3.2    It is important to note that consideration of the Public Sector Equality Duty is not a one-off task. The duty must be fulfilled before taking a decision, at the time of taking a decision, and after the decision has been taken.
3.3    The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership (but only in respect of the need to eliminate discrimination), race (ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, and sexual orientation.
3.4    The Public Sector Equality Duty requires decision-takers in the exercise of all their functions, to have due regard to the need to:
•    eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other prohibited conduct
•    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
•    foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
3.5    Having due regard to the need to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it involves having due regard, in particular, to the need to:
•    remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by persons who share a relevant protected characteristic where those disadvantages are connected to that characteristic
•    take steps to meet the needs of persons who share a relevant protected characteristic that are different from the needs of persons who do not share it
•    encourage persons who share a relevant protected characteristic to participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by such persons is disproportionately low.
3.6    The steps involved in meeting the needs of disabled persons that are different from the needs of persons who are not disabled include, in particular, steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities.
3.7    Having due regard to the need to foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it involves having due regard, in particular, to the need to:
•    tackle prejudice
•    promote understanding
3.8    A full Equality Impact Assessment has been undertaken. The Inclusion team determined that no changes are necessary due to the robust equality considerations mentioned. However, the team also noted that actions had been outlined to ensure the equitable engagement of those with protected characteristics. These actions will be reviewed in six months to ensure alignment with the legal requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty.
 

Workforce comments
4.1    Without continued parking provision, there is the risk of a detrimental impact on the LFC’s operational capacity and capability to mobilise senior officers to operational incidents from LFB HQ. The recommendation to enable a reversionary lease to be negotiated and put in place, to secure continued provision, is considered a critical mitigation of this risk. If mutually agreeable terms within the proposed budget cannot be negotiated, a further corporate position must be agreed to support the LFC’s commitments under the Community Risk Management Plan.
Sustainability comments
4.2    There has been a review of sustainable benefits. Parking spaces at Southwark Bridge Road car park do not have any EV charging points; however, in the context of the proposed lease renewal terms, it is unviable (from both a landlord’s and a tenant’s perspective) to invest £400,000 to increase electrical capacity to the site to support this. It is acknowledged that EV facilities are limited across the car parks supporting LFB HQ. However, a cost-benefit analysis for the remaining LFB HQ lease term renders any investment an unviable option. A full Sustainable Development Impact Assessment has been completed and approved by the Sustainable Development team, with no significant sustainability impacts identified.
Procurement comments
4.3    The requirement to secure continued parking provision for senior operational officers will be met through negotiation of revised terms in respect of an existing lease agreement and a procurement process is not anticipated.
Conflicts of interest
4.4    There are no conflicts of interest to declare from those involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision.
 

5.1    This decision requests approval to commit revenue expenditure, for the LFC to progress negotiations and agree Heads of Terms for a new lease with Galliard (Southwark) UK, to ensure continuity of senior officer parking provision for LFB HQ in accordance with the proposed terms, as set out in Part 2 of this decision.

5.2    Part 2 of this decision contains detailed financial information to support this request.
 

6.1    Under section 9 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the LFC 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 LFC specific or general directions as to the manner in which the holder of that office is to exercise his or her functions. 
6.2    By direction dated 1 April 2018, the Mayor set out those matters, for which the LFC would require the prior approval of either the Mayor or the Deputy Mayor.
6.3    Paragraph (b) of Part 2 of that direction requires the LFC 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”.
6.4    The statutory basis for the actions proposed in this report is provided by sections 7 and 5A of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 (FRSA 2004). Under section 7 (2)(a) of the FRSA 2004, the LFC has the power to secure the provision of personnel, services and equipment necessary to efficiently meet all normal requirements for firefighting. section 5A of the FRSA 2004 allows the LFC to procure personnel, services and equipment they consider appropriate for purposes incidental, or indirectly incidental, to their functional purposes. Provision of suitable parking facilities to enable emergency response by officers falls within this remit.
6.5    These comments have been adopted from those provided by the LFC’s General Counsel Department in report LFC-24-096 to the LFC.
 

Appendix 1 – Report LFC-24-096 to the LFC