Agenda item

Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited - Accounts for the Year Ending 31st March 2024

Report of the Director for City Services and Commercial and Director for Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited

Minutes:

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Director for City Services and Commercial and Director for Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited, in respect of the audited accounts for Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited (CMH) for the years ending 31st March 2023 and 31st March 2024.

 

The report had also been considered by the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee on 6th March 2025 (their minute 80/24 refers) and was also due to be considered by the Coventry Shareholder Committee at its meeting scheduled for 26th March 2025.

 

The Coventry Municipal Holdings Limited (CMH) manages the commercial interests of the wholly owned Council investments in a number of arm’s length company investments, including:

 

  Tom White Waste Limited (TW) and Subsidiaries: A&M Metals, TW(LACo) (the Teckal company)

  Coombe Abbey Park Limited 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)

 

A key legal document called the Group Governance Agreement (GGA) was developed to provide the governance framework for CMH, the parent for the Council’s wholly owned investments.  The GGA stipulates that CMH should produce an Annual Performance Report looking back at the operation of the Group to the year-end.  The Committee noted that the annual report would be presented to Coventry Shareholder Committee each year with the published accounts being presented to Audit and Procurement Committee. 

 

This report submitted looked at the years ending 31st March 2023 and 31st March 2024 for the CMH group of companies based on their audited accounts which were available at Companies House.  Tom White Waste and Coventry Municipal Holdings Group received an extension for filing granted to the 31st March 2025 and, as such, although they have been approved by the Board of Directors, they may not yet appear on Companies House.  The accounts for all other companies would be available at Companies House. 

 

The accounts for the year ending 31st March 2023 for Tom White Waste Limited Group, Coventry Technical Resources Limited and Coventry Regeneration Limited were previously presented to Audit Committee on the 29th January 2024.

 

There were a number of challenges with regards to the financial position for the subsidiaries in the group with the leisure sector recovering from the impact of Covid-19 and Tom White experiencing additional operating costs, higher material disposal costs, together with the correction historic accounting practices.  These factors have affected the financial performance as set out in the report.

 

The Committee sought further information and clarification on a number of matters, including:

 

·  How extensive refurbishment of Coombe Abbey Hotel would be provided for?  There was a rolling programme of works, including ongoing update of bedrooms, which would continue over a period of 10 years.  It was also important to consider how the hotel would use some areas going forward, such as the Abbeygate area currently used for banquets being promoted as a ‘wedding barn’.

·  Whether Tom White Waste required significant amounts of funding to upgrade plant equipment?  A report was considered in January that dealt with the sale and lease of property, rather than equipment. The equipment on site remained the property of Tom White Waste.  The total replacement of equipment had been considered but rejected due to changes in the market. There would be a series of smaller investments and a smaller capital programme over an 18 month period to ensure that the company not only continues, but also evaluates and improves.  The capital programme would be with Tom White Waste, not the Council.

·  The background of James Cockell, who had been appointed as a Director of Coombe Abbey Park Limited?  James has had involvement with the IHG Group and has provided the company / Directors with a wider understanding of the hotel industry and has acted as a critical friend.  James operates a successful hotel in the Cotswolds and has provided insight into how to flex room rates on the day to increase occupancy.

·  The impact of the National Insurance increase for employers?  The impact of the increase is approximately £0.5m across the Company and, although not insignificant, it had been accounted for the budgets.

·  What is the Coventry Technical Resources Company?  This was previously the North Coventry Holdings set up to develop the arena area and now operates as an arms length company as a mechanism to access funds. 

 

RESOLVED that, the Audit and Procurement Committee:

 

1.  Consider and note the financial position as reported in the Annual Accounts for the Companies to 31st March 2023 and 31st March 2024.

 

2.  Confirm that there are no comments or recommendations for the Coventry Shareholder Committee arising from this meeting.

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