Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Culture, Communities and Business Services providing a summary of the financial performance of business units within the Business Services Group.

To consider a report of the Director of Culture, Communities and Business Services providing a summary of the financial performance of business units within the Business Services Group.

The Panel considered the report of the Director of Culture, Communities and Business Services providing a summary of the financial performance of the self-funding business units namely County Supplies (CS), Hampshire Transport Management (HTM) and Hampshire Catering Services (HC3S) (Item 10 in the Minute Book).

An annual surplus of £837,000 was reported which had been generated across the Group and was higher than the forecast surplus.

In particular, CS had experienced its highest annual turnover in 2016/17, of £9.68million. The service continued to conduct high level analysis of schools’ spend to ensure that its pricing structure was in line with that of key competitors in the market. Members were pleased to hear that, as part of the CS loyalty scheme, a total of £550,000 had been paid back to schools customers over the previous five years and proposed that this be included as an additional recommendation for the Executive Member for Economic Development to note.

HTM overachieved on its surplus target by £244,000 and had recently been awarded the contract for the supply and maintenance of a vehicle fleet of approximately 130 Light Commercial Vehicles, Heavy Goods Vehicles and dedicated gritters to Skanska UK for delivery of the Hampshire Highways Services Contract.

HC3S continued its success in the provision of primary school meals (including Universal Infant Free School Meals) and providing services to secondary schools and other County Council sites. Specifically, it was reported that in 2016/17 a total of just over 11.5 million meals were served in primary schools which was a take-up of 59.9% exceeding the target of 59.6%.

RESOLVED:

That the Buildings, Land and Procurement Panel recommends to the Executive Member for Economic Development that he:

a)    Approves the 2016/17 annual report and accounts for the Business Services Group.

b)    Notes that, in reference to section 4.16 of the report, a total of £550,000 in loyalty discount benefits had been made to schools over the previous five years.