Agenda item

To present to the Committee the findings of the garage management review relating to the occupancy, promotion, rental and terminations of garages. To propose changes to the garage rent charges.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

1.    support the proposal to fix the current garage rental charges for at least one year in order to reach maximum occupancy, in turn increasing total income; and

2.    to receive a progress update on the garage occupancy, applications and income in 2019/2020.

Steph Aves, Special Projects Officer, introduced the item.

The Committee welcomed the findings of the garage management review.

During the discussion, the following points and comments were noted:

a.    the garage review project started in January 2018 in response to the historic lack of priority, subsequent poor service and potential to increase income;

b.    the Council owned 682 garages across 60 sites - the standard price (53 of the 60 blocks) was £14.43 per week for a council tenant and £17.32 per week for a private resident. The remaining seven sites had a higher rent which ranged from £14.86 to £29.80 per week due to being in popular central locations;

c.    450 garages were let at 66% occupancy rate, from which, 73% were private licensees and 27% were council tenants;

d.    as a result of the poor garage management practices over recent years, the rate of occupancy had been lower than expected and the statistics did not reliably reflect the true garage service potential. Over time, the unnused garages had become a wasted asset, which could fall into disrepair and attract opportunists attempts to break in or fly tip incurring large costs to the Council;

e.    the rent benchmarking exerciseshowed a comparison of the standard weekly garage charges by councils following a benchmarking desk top exercise. It demonstrated the weekly Waverley tenants charge was very similar to that charged by Runnymede Council but Waverley’s non-tenant charge (£17.32 per week) was 52% higher than that charged by Guildford Borough Council;

f.     there had been a 26% increase since 2014/15 when comparing Waverley’s garage rental charges each year;

g.    the term‘Percentage occupancy’ was an umbrella statistic which took into account, demand and affordability, a useful indicator of the current letting situation. This was maximised in 2016, having 474 live licences though as a result of inefficient garage management over the past few years, occupancy levels began to decline each year after;

h.    as at 1 April 2018, just 64% (439) of the total garage stock was let, leaving 36% (243) of garages void. On 1 October 2018, Waverley had seen a 2% increase, reaching 66% (450) let rate while 34% of garages (232) remained void;

i.      there had been 100 new sign ups since August 2018 with £83k per annum of income. There was a potential to optimise the income to or over £0.5m a year if all garage were let eventually;

j.      in response to various queries and comments, it was learnt that: the review had cost Waverley about £100k which included planned upgrades, day to day requests and refurbishments, the term of lease was on weekly basis with seven days termination period. This review had opened up the market for storage as majority were not using garages to park cars but to store other general belongings, including bikes and mobility scooters etc. There was a need to make the garages affordable with improved lighting and maintenance around the sites, there were 70 garages at one site in a estate in Haslemere; and

k.    before and after photos of the work carried out were circulated and noted.

Resolved:

Following a wholesome discussion, it was agreed that the Committee:

1.         supported the proposal to fix the current garage rental charges for at least one year in order to reach maximum occupancy, in turn increasing total           income; and

2.         to receive a progress update on the garage occupancy, applications and    income in 2019/2020.

In addition, the Chairman on behalf of the Committee praised the good work carried out thus far and requested that:

·         garage update became a regular item on the agenda at appropriate intervals with the next full update in six months’ time; and

·         information update about the garage patches/location be provided in February 2019.