How much has Brent House lost council taxpayers?

Brent Council purchased the leasehold of Brent House in Wembley in 2008 for £17.1m. Shortly after due to the financial collapse and the resulting property crash it was revalued in 2010 on an 'owner occupier use value' at £8.375m. The current depreciated  Net Book Value on the Council's Asset Register is £4.519m.

Brent House is now surplus to requirements following the move of council staff to the Civic Centre but Air France still occupies part of the building and it has Vodafone and Airwaves masts on the roof. The combined income stream for the council ois£363k. This is likely to be lost on sale of the leasehold as Air France will have to vacate the building.

Brent Council borrowed £17.695m for the leasehold purchase with an annual debt charge of £1.031m. This combines principal and interest and was forecast for repayment over 40 years. (I'll leave you to work out the total cost!) The outstanding principal of the original borrowing  is £16.886m - more than 3 times the Net Book Value.

The council now proposes to dispose of the leasehold but has not released the purchase figure. They do state however that the capital receipt offer is in excess of the 'property's Net Book Value on the Council's Asset Register but lower that the outstanding principal on the unsupported borrowing'.

We are left to work out that the bidder's unrevealed purchase  figure is between £4.519m and £16.886m. A wide range by any stretch of the imagination and surely residents ought to be told the extent of any loss on the sale? Details are restricted and the relevant Appendix to the report no published.

The Brent Executive will decide on Monday their preferred bidder  for the leasehold sale. Officers are recommending one from Stoford Ltd.

Stoford intend to convert and extend the premises to provide a 158 bed hotel, (Premier Inn) 66 homes of which 'around 22' would be affordable and 465m2 of retail with 165 parking spaces.

If that does not progress the reserve bidder recommended is Henley Homes which officers, whilst impressed by Henley's track record,  questioned deliverability'.

This is a new build bid with 269 homes of which 80 would be affordable and with a bigger retail space of 1,580m2 but no hotel.

Anong the rejected bids were:

• One Housing Group, rejected as too low financially.
• Bellway Homes - scheme for 327-346 homesm rejected as over-development
• Criterion Capital - unconditional bid for conversion of exisiting building to 135-140 homes, Theye did not submit a second bid.
• Quatar Property Group - conversion of existing building to an unspecified number of homes, rejected due to relatively low value.

Although the Council claim that a hotel meets with the Wembley Plan I would question whether the borough needs yet another hotel and most of the new Wembley hotels are closer to the Stadium, Arena and Wembley Park station.

It does seem to me that the Council has missed yet another opportunity to build affordable homes. A hotel is also planned at Bridge Park on the other side of the North Circular with a minimum affordable home quota of only 5%.

The retail fits in with the Council's plan to have a retail corridor all the way from Wembley Central station down to the Stadium, incorporatng the London Designer Outlet.  The redeveloped Elizabeth House, next to Brent House, already includes retail space which as far as I know has not yet been let. The jury is still out on the viability of the LDO.

Vodafone deal to make Brent Council workers mobile

Vodafone's press release - does this make the Civic Centre redundant?

Brent Council has signed a deal with Vodafone for the operator to use its One Net solution for a new communications infrastructure.

The council said the operator will help them to create a mobile workforce, allowing employees across 30 different departments to work remotely and use smartphones as often as landlines. The systems will help the council reduce desk space, allow employees secure access to information remotely, reduce staff travel and cut their use of paper.

Brent Council said the deal will increase productivity but reduce its operating costs. The infrastructure is being provided as the council moves from 14 separate buildings into one civic centre.

Vodafone will provide the council with a bundle of texts, minutes and data in one bill. Staff will be able to be reached on any device through one phone number and will have access to one central voicemail. Councillor Ruth Moher, deputy leader for London Borough of Brent Council and lead member for finance and corporate resources, said: ‘This was a very complex project so we knew there was a need to keep things as simple as possible, which is one of the reasons why we chose Vodafone.

‘Vodafone had the most coherent presentation of a unified system and we felt they would be the best choice to implement and host the system, allowing our employees to focus on their core functions rather than dealing with IT issues.

‘The future is all about mobile working. Our employees are currently using as many mobile applications as possible and we want to see how far we can push the concept of working through apps.’

Ian Cunningham,  head of public sector at Vodafone, said: ‘Brent Council’s facility is state of the art and we’re delighted to be involved in such a cutting edge project. The council is setting a fantastic example for government organisations, showing how they can find better ways of working by making improvements in four key areas – people, processes, technology and property.’

ANTI-CUTS ACTIVISTS SHUTDOWN VODAFONE FLAGSHIP STORE IN DISGUST AT £6BN TAX EVASION

65 activists have today stopped trading at Vodafone’s largest retail store on Oxford Street, London, by blockading the doorway in disgust at the HMRC’s deal with Vodafone that have allowed them to walk away from paying a tax bill thought to be worth £6bn to the public purse.




The action started at 09:30 this morning where activists gathered at The Ritz hotel near Oxford Street following rapid mobilization over the weekend via Twitter, Facebook, blogs and text messaging.

The 65 activists confronted the minor security in front of the shop to gain entry to the shop and proceeded to blockade the entrance with arm tubes and banners before the store had chance to even receive its first customer.

This comes exactly a week after George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review in which he announced that another £7bn will be cut from welfare, producing a total of £18bn of cuts from vital welfare services.

These cuts have been widely condemned by charity groups representing the most vulnerable in society, and the highly respected Institute of Fiscal Studies confirmed on Thursday last week that the coalition’s cuts will indeed hit the poorest in society the hardest.

The issue of tax evasion by corporations and the wealthy was not however even mentioned during Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review speech, despite the fact that it is estimated that the deficit to the public purse from tax evasion amounts to at least £12bn each year.

To add salt to the wound, Osborne also announced last week that large corporations in addition will be expected to contribute 4% less in tax to public services across the next four years through a reduction in corporation tax.

Activists on today’s action also note that Andy Halford is both a financial advisor to Vodafone and a corporation tax advisor to the treasury.

Under a banner that read “Pay your taxes - save our welfare state”, Jennifer Kyte said, “The cuts are not fair, we're not all in this together, and there are alternatives. Why not start by collecting - instead of writing off – the tens of billions owed in taxes by wealthy corporations?”

She continued, “The economic downturn was caused by the reckless greed of the private sector, but it is the public sector and those at the bottom that are picking up the bill. Is this their idea of the wonderful Big Society?”

Zeketa Darby said, “We will not pay for their crisis! The public need to join together and hit the streets to take concerted action to fight these cuts”