Issue - meetings

Further to Minute 13 (19 June 2018), the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing presented a report on the latest issues relating to the Council’s ambitions for major film/TV studios and associated media related activity at the former Sanofi site, Rainham Road South, Dagenham.

The period of exclusivity previously given to the preferred bidder for the studio development project had elapsed without sufficient progress being made.  At that point and in order to maintain momentum, Be First officers had held discussions with other industry operators and produced a Business Plan that set out a range of options, from the Council fully funding the build and then running the studios (maximum intervention) through to selling the site following planning approval (minimum intervention) and with a range of options in between.

The Cabinet Member advised that securing planning approval had been a significant barrier to the successful delivery of a number of other studio development projects across the UK.  To that end, it was proposed that the Council fund pre-development costs of up to £3.4m pending a further report to Cabinet on the detail of the delivery options.

In response to issues raised, the Cabinet Member confirmed that the Council’s land purchases at the former Sanofi site had already increased in value and the additional uplift that could reasonably be expected from achieving planning approval for a studio development would more than cover the Council’s pre-development costs. 

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer to appoint a design team in accordance with the Council’s Contract Rules to work up and submit a full planning application along the lines of the site masterplan shown at Appendix 1 to the report, on behalf of the Council;

(ii)  Agree to allocate up to £3.4m to cover pre-development costs from the Investment and Acquisition Budget to allow the project to seek planning approval and to take Phase 1 of the scheme (shown in Appendix 2 of the report) through to RIBA Stage 4 design;

(iii)  Note that a future Cabinet report shall seek approval for the delivery option, with the Business Plan highlighting a range of options;

(iv)  Authorise the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Director of Law and Governance, to negotiate and award any agreements to give effect to recommendations (i) and (ii) above; and

(v)  Authorise the Director of Law and Governance, or an authorised delegate on her behalf, to execute all the legal agreements, contracts and other documents on behalf of the Council in relation to recommendations (i) and (ii) above.