CD173 - Newbridge Advisors - Western Lands Business Case

In January 2020, the Board approved OPDC’s revised delivery approach, which included the following the key elements:

• A new focus to the regeneration of the area, taking a comprehensive view of the ‘Western Lands’ along Old Oak Common Lane, Old Oak Lane and Victoria Road where key sites are owned by Department for Transport (DfT) and Network Rail.
• Developing the case for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to land, development and infrastructure to optimise the strategic opportunities that the area offers.
• Securing the support of major partners including public sector landowners and funders.

Since January 2021, OPDC officers have worked directly with Homes England (HE) and engaged with other public sector stakeholders, including Network Rail, High Speed 2 (HS2) and our local boroughs, to begin the process of securing the support of these major partners to the development of the strategy for Western Lands. OPDC has also engaged with central government – via the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) (formerly the Ministry for Homes, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)), DfT and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority – to discuss potential funding opportunities.

This engagement with government colleagues has led to a direction to produce, and jointly agree, a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) for the delivery of the Western Lands, to be developed in line with the Treasury’s guidance for developing project business cases and will follow the “five case” model: Strategic, Economic, Commercial, Financial, Management.

Input to the SOC is being provided by both OPDC and HE officers drawing on in-house expertise, including input from the GLA Housing & Land Directorate and Transport for London (TfL) Operational Property, as well as by Savills (approved in CD154, CD161 and CD165).

Newbridge Advisors were appointed in 2020 to assist OPDC in developing its Western Lands proposals and formulating a Business Case in contemplation of submitting a bid to government for funding (CD144). Newbridge have worked alongside OPDC and HE officers in the development of the Western Lands strategy and the Strategic Outline Case. They have worked on the drafting of the Commercial and Management case and the extension of their appointment will enable them to develop these chapters further and conclude the drafting following feedback from government stakeholders.

This decision seeks approval for further expenditure of £30,000 from OPDC’s Western Lands 2021/22 budget to extend Newbridge’s appointment, with a variation order to the existing contract. Newbridge will provide additional project management and drafting resourcing alongside its expertise in regeneration, property development, funding and development viability, in order to provide the necessary input into the SOC. This is in addition to the £75,000 already approved for past Newbridge input into our Western Lands and SOC work, bringing total approved expenditure for Newbridge to £105,000.

A summary of Western Lands approvals to date is provided below:

FY21/22

A summary of the approvals under the March 2021 Board delegation is provided below:

The proposal and how it will be delivered

Newbridge were awarded the contract in October 2020 as the highest scoring bidder on Transport for London’s Property Consultancy Framework in the relevant lot.

The existing contract is valid until 26 April 2022. Newbridge is set to complete the deliverables under the original scope in December 2021. As the development of the business case has been subject to detailed feedback and requests for further detail in key areas it is necessary to resource this additional scope. Following the submission there are likely to be follow-up tasks relating to the submission, responding to queries and supporting meetings which will also require additional support.

OPDC’s staff team is currently at full capacity with both the SOC and GLA Land Fund bids operating in parallel. It will also be going through some staffing changes due to maternity and other changes within the team. Newbridge’s experience of the draft SOC places it in the best position to support OPDC with additional resource and excellent knowledge of the project.

A variation is proposed to extend Newbridge’s existing call-off contract (Contract TfL93535 Task 136) to include expenditure relating to this decision. TfL Procurement have advised this variation is acceptable as it meets procurement regulations, is in line with the OPDC’s Contracts and Funding Code and meets the conditions for variation in the call-off contract. The existing call-off will be varied to cater for the additional work.

The commission will cover the following work:

• To support a series of structured workshops with government stakeholders on the commercial and management options for the SOC following a request to develop these chapters further.
• To complete the drafting of the SOC Commercial and Management cases following structured feedback from government stakeholders.
• Support follow-up workshops with government stakeholders and any further comments on the SOC following its submission.
  

The objective of the proposal is:

• Develop support for the conclusions of the commercial and management cases with key government decision makers.

The outcomes of the proposal we are seeking are:

• A fully developed commercial and management case that considers all structured feedback from government stakeholders.
• Initial guidance on the mobilisation, set-up and governance of the Western Lands project and necessary resourcing from OPDC and its partners, to feed into OPDC’s mobilisation plan.

Strategic fit

This proposal supports OPDC’s Western Lands strategy – the revised delivery approach, which was approved by the Board in January 2020. The work will provide expertise necessary to prepare a SOC for submission to central government and provide input to OPDC’s mobilisation strategy.

OPDC must have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to the need to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The outputs from the Newbridge Advisor’s consultancy commission, where material to future corporate plans, strategies, policy development, communications, investment/funding requests and delivery plans, which will be subject to equalities assessments at the appropriate time. This will inform how OPDC, the Mayor and other stakeholders can ensure that the investment in HS2 and other public sector assets can be leveraged locally to maximise regenerative impacts and opportunities for local communities.

Project governance and assurance

The Development Director will act as Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for this procurement, and the subsequent management of the Newbridge Advisors contract.

The SRO will coordinate, control and regularly monitor Newbridge Advisor’s instructions and outputs; ensuring that relevant outputs are reported internally.

Risks and issues

The following risks are associated with this proposal:

There are no extant issues that require management or mitigation.

Other considerations

There are no other considerations that need to be noted in the taking of his decision.

Conflicts of interest

No one involved in the preparation or clearance of this Form, or its substantive proposal, has any conflict of interest.

The expenditure approval being requested in this paper to support the Western Lands project is contained within the existing 2021/22 Western Lands programme budget of £0.705m.

Cumulative approvals in 2021/22 under the Board delegation on the Western Lands Project totals £0.249m.

Further expenditure and contract variations are subject the Corporation’s decision-making process.

The report above indicates that the decision requested of the Chief Executive falls with the OPDC’s object of securing the regeneration of the Old Oak and Park Royal area and its powers to do anything it considers appropriate for the purpose of its objects or purposes incidental to those purposes, as set out in the Localism Act 2011.

In taking the decisions requested, the Chief Executive must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty, namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Chief Executive should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report

Procurement officers have confirmed that the services required are a compliant variation to a call-off contract already procured under Transport for London’s Property Consultancy Framework and is in accordance with the OPDC’s Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that variation documentation is put in place and executed by Newbridge Advisors and OPDC before the commencement of the additional services.