Decision details

With the approval of the Chairman of the Growth, Environment and Resources Scrutiny Committee and the Monitoring Officer, the urgency procedure, special urgency procedure, and waiver of call-in procedure have been invoked to suspend the requirement to publish the decision on the forward plan for 28 days, to suspend the requirement to publish the report for five days in advance of the decision being taken, and the requirement to subject the decision to a three day call-in period. These procedures have been invoked in order to enable the Council’s decision to allow the sale and onward sale to take place simultaneously with a required completion date imminently to allow the third party to finalise its arrangement for the development of the site. These dependencies have only come to light recently, as has the presence of the third party and so it was not known at the time of the previous report to Cabinet in February 2022 and the date can not be deferred to the next Cabinet meeting. 

1.    Disposed of land at Northminster in Peterborough City Council’s ownership to P.I.P (Northminster) Ltd on the basis that PIP LLP will sell P.I.P. (Northminster) Ltd (the SPV) onwards simultaneously to a third party as outlined in paragraph 5 of the exempt Appendix; the purpose of which is to secure the delivery of the proposed project. 

2.    Agreed that payment for the land will be in the form of a capital receipt and not in the form of loan notes. 

3.      Noted that the arrangements made by Peterborough Investment Partnership LLP in relation to Peterborough Investment Partnership (Northminster) Ltd will end on transfer and the Council will receive a distribution of the amount of money left in PIP Northminster after reasonable and verifiable costs.  

4.    Noted the proposed completion date of (or prior to) 18th May 2022.  

5.    Agreed that any final amendments to the transaction are delegated to the Director: Resources and Director: Law and Governance in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Resources 

The Council has already agreed to sell the land at Northminster to facilitate its development for housing.  The report recommends agreement to the final Heads of Terms which will enable the sale to deliver the Council a significant capital receipt in the current financial year and enable the continued use of Combined Authority grant to support the affordable housing scheme proposed for the site.

Officers considered two alternative options:

1)    To sell the land directly to the Third Party:  This option is not achievable as the planning permission and grant site with PIP (Northminster) Ltd and the Third Party has already agreed its transaction with the PIP.  The Council has worked in partnership with the PIP for some time to achieve the development of this site. The option to sell to PIP (Northminster) Ltd and then a simultaneously sell to a third party achieves the same outcome

2)    Do nothing: This option would mean that the land sale would not proceed, the development of the land would not proceed at this point, detrimentally affecting the regeneration and growth plans for the city and would mean the need for the PIP would need to return grant to the Combined Authority and would not meet its costs.  An alternative scheme at a later stage may not be viable.

None.

Cabinet report 21st February 2022:Budget Approval For The Construction Of Peterborough City Market And For The Disposal Of Land At Northminster