Agenda item

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services and Managing Director for Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director for Streetscene and Regulatory Services and Managing Director for Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited that provided the year ending 31^st March 2022 and 31^st March 2023 for the Coventry Municipal Holdings Group of companies based on their audited accounts.

On the 5^th November 2021, Coventry City Council incorporated Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited (CMH), including Tom White Waste Limited (TWW) and subsidiaries: A&M Metals, TW(LACo) (the Teckal company), Coombe Abbey Park Limited (CAPL) and subsidiaries: No Ordinary Hospitality Management (NOHM), Coombe Abbey Park (LACo) (the Teckal company); Coventry Technical Resources Limited (CTR); Coventry Regeneration Limited (CR); No Ordinary Hotels Limited (effectively a dormant company), and restructured their wholly owned company investments. The organisational structure, set out in the report, was implemented to strengthen their governance arrangements to ensure companies were managed in a robust and transparent manner.

A key legal document called the Group Governance Agreement (GGA) was developed to provide the governance framework for CMH, the parent for the Councils wholly owned investments. The GGA stipulated that CMH should produce an Annual Performance Report looking back at the operation of the Group to the year-end and produce a summary to Internal Audit. This report looked at the year ending 31^st March 2022 and 31^st March 2023 for the CMH group of companies based on their audited accounts which were available at Companies House. The accounts for the year ending 31^st March 2023 for Coombe Abbey Park Group and Coventry Municipal Holdings Group were currently being audited with an extension for filing granted to 31^st March 2024 and as such were not included in this report. The accounts would be available at Companies House once the audit process had been completed and the numbers were finalised. Appendices to the report provided the following accounts, which were also summarised in the report:

CMH Group accounts for the year ending 31st March 2022

Coombe Abbey Park Limited Group Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2021

Tom White Waste Group accounts to the year ending 31st March 2022

Coventry Technical Resources Limited accounts to the year ending 31st March 2022

Coventry Regeneration accounts for the year ending 31st March 2022

No Ordinary Hotels Limited accounts to the year ended 31st March 2022

Tom White Waste group accounts to the year ending 31st March 2023

Coventry Technical Resources Limited accounts to the year ending 31st March 2023

Coventry Regeneration accounts for the year ending 31st March 2023

No Ordinary Hotels Limited accounts to the year ended 31st March 2023

Each of the trading entities had adhered to the requirements under the GGA. Decisions which had required escalation to CMH Board or Shareholder Committee had been taken to the respective Boards for approval. Each of the entities had complied with the Council Contracting Policy and Procurement Policy.

The Committee received clarification of employee numbers for the Tom White Waste Group and Coombe Abbey Park Limited. They noted that dividends were not included in this report and would be reported separately, and that the 2022/23 accounts for 2022/23 Coombe Abbey Park Limited and Municipal Group Holdings were outstanding,  for which an extended deadline for their submission (31^st March 2024) had been given and this would be met. In respect of any further Council investments, CMH could expand to include the governance of new company investments however, they would not need to be part of CMH and would be considered individually on the most appropriate arrangements for them. It was intended that there would be one auditor for CMH going forward. The Committee further noted that projected profits had been undertaken but remained commercially confidential, and that the management accounts for individual organisations considered monthly, also remained commercially confidential until formally published.

RESOLVED that the Audit and Procurement Committee:

1)  Notes the financial position as reported in the Annual Accounts for the companies to 31^st March 2022 and 31^st March 2023.

2)  Agrees that there are no recommendations to make to the Coventry Shareholder Committee.