Heygate regeneration agreement (audit report and profit overage calculations)

The request was partially successful.

Dear Southwark Borough Council,

On 23 July 2010, Southwark Council signed a Regeneration Agreement with
developer Lend Lease for the redevelopment of the Elephant & Castle.

Page 87 of the Regeneration Agreement sets out the following audit requirements:

Paragraph 2.4:
"Procure that the Development Account is annually audited by the Auditors (acting on an independent basis) and the resulting audit report supplied to the Council."

Paragraph 3.5:
"The Developer shall provide a copy of the Project Cash Flow to the Council quarterly, together with such calculations relating to the calculation of the Planning Overage and the Profit Overage as the Council may reasonably require."

I am writing to request a copy of the most recent audit report supplied to the council under the terms of paragraph 2.4 of the agreement.

I am also requesting a copy of the most recent Project Cash Flow and overage calculations supplied in accordance with paragraph 3.5 of the agreement.

Yours faithfully,

Jerry Flynn
35% Campaign
www.35percent.org

Regeneration, Southwark Borough Council

Southwark Council - Information request

Our reference: 570320

show quoted sections

Regeneration, Southwark Borough Council

Southwark Council - Information request

Our reference: 570320

show quoted sections

Regeneration, Southwark Borough Council

Southwark Council - Information request

Our reference: 570320

show quoted sections

CEXaccessinfo, Southwark Borough Council

2 Attachments

Link: [1]File-List

Dear Mr Flynn,

 

Re: Your request for information: 570320

 

Thank you for your request for information that was received on 16
November 2015 in which you requested:

 

On 23 July 2010, Southwark Council signed a Regeneration Agreement with
developer Lend Lease for the redevelopment of the Elephant & Castle.

 

Page 87 of the Regeneration Agreement sets out the following audit
requirements:

 

Paragraph 2.4:

"Procure that the Development Account is annually audited by the Auditors
(acting on an independent basis) and the resulting audit report supplied
to the Council."

 

Paragraph 3.5:

"The Developer shall provide a copy of the Project Cash Flow to the
Council quarterly, together with such calculations relating to the
calculation of the Planning Overage and the Profit Overage as the Council
may reasonably require."

 

I am writing to request a copy of the most recent audit report supplied to
the council under the terms of paragraph 2.4 of the agreement.

 

I am also requesting a copy of the most recent Project Cash Flow and
overage calculations supplied in accordance with paragraph 3.5 of the
agreement.

 

Your request was being dealt with under Environmental Information
Regulation 2004 (EIR).

 

In response to your request, I am able to provide the following
information:

 

Please find attached the audit reports. Please also note that wherever the
information is redacted, this is in accordance with Regulation 12(3) of
the Environmental Information Regulation 2004 where we are obliged to
protect the identity of third party individuals’ who may be identified
from our records.

 

However with regards to the Project Cash Flow, I regret that we must
extend the time limit for responding by a further 6 working days. We aim
to let you have a response by 14 December 2015.

 

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience it may have
caused. 

 

 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make an appeal for a review of our decision, you
should write to the Corporate Freedom of Information Manager at:

Corporate Freedom of Information Officer

The Governance Team (2nd floor)

PO Box 64529

London

SE1P 5LX

Email: [2][Southwark Borough Council request email]

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your appeal, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have first
exhausted our internal appeal procedure and you should contact him within
2 months of the outcome of your internal appeal.

 

Further information on the Freedom of Information Act is available through
the Information Commissioner at the:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Internet: www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Martyna Plewniak

System Information Project Officer

 

 

 

 

 

 

The email you received and any files transmitted with it are confidential,
may be covered by legal and/or professional privilege and are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this in error please notify us immediately. If you
are not the intended recipient of the email or the person responsible for
delivering it to them you may not copy it, forward it or otherwise use it
for any purpose or disclose its contents to any other person. To do so may
be unlawful. Where opinions are expressed in the email they are not
necessarily those of Southwark Council and Southwark Council is not
responsible for any changes made to the message after it has been sent.

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D12E8E.1E793A30
2. mailto:[Southwark Borough Council request email]

Regeneration, Southwark Borough Council

Southwark Council - Information request

Our reference: 570320

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Plewniak,

Thank you for reply dated 14th December. In your response to our request for the profit overage estimates supplied by the cashflow statement condition in the Heygate regeneration agreement, you say that "the council expects to receive information from the developer which will satisfy this condition in the New Year."

I would be grateful if you would provide us with the date when the council expects to receive this information from the developer Lend Lease.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Jerry Flynn
www.35percent.org

CEXaccessinfo, Southwark Borough Council

Dear Mr Flynn,

I am able to confirm that there is a Regeneration Agreement Board meeting scheduled for 3 February 2016, when we are expecting to be presented with this information. We therefore estimate a potential release date to be sometime after that.

I hope it comes of assistance.

Yours sincerely,

Martyna Plewniak

System Information Project Officer

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Plewniak,

Thank you for your email of 11 January, in which you confirm that "a Regeneration Agreement Board meeting is scheduled for 3 February" and that a "potential release date" for the profit overage calculations will follow.

Please could you advise whether such a release date has now been identified and either send us the information if it has been received, or advise of when it is due to be released if still pending.

I would appreciate it if you would also send a copy of the minutes taken from the Regeneration Agreement Board meeting.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Jerry Flynn

Planning, Southwark Borough Council

Southwark Council - Information request

Our reference: 606804

show quoted sections

Planning, Southwark Borough Council

Southwark Council - Information request

Our reference: 606804

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Plewniak

Your response of 21 March gave a date of 11 April for the information requested or an explanation of further delay. I would therefore be grateful if the information requested could now be forwarded to me.
Yours sincerely,

Jerry Flynn

CEXaccessinfo, Southwark Borough Council

Dear Mr Flynn,

Please accept my apologies for this and the further delay. We have now agreed and finalised this response with the third party. However, it requires to be formally signed off yet.

You should certainly hear from us within the next 2 working days.

Once again I apologise for the delay and the inconvenience it might have caused on behalf of the council.

Yours sincerely,

Martyna Plewniak
System Information Project Officer
E: [email address]

show quoted sections

CEXaccessinfo, Southwark Borough Council

1 Attachment

Link: [1]File-List

Dear Mr Flynn,

 

Re: Your request for information: 606804

Thank you for your request for information that was received on 27
February 2016 in which you requested:

 

1.         Thank you for your email of 11 January, in which you confirm
that a Regeneration Agreement Board meeting is scheduled for 3 February"
and that a "potential release date" for the profit overage calculations
will follow. Please could you advise whether such a release date has now
been identified and either send us the information if it has been
received, or advise of when it is due to be released if still pending. 

 

2.    I  would appreciate it if you would also send a copy of the minutes
taken from the regeneration Agreement Board meeting.

 

 

By way of background your original request for information was as follows
[no:570320]

 

The Developer shall provide a copy of the Project Cash Flow to the Council
quarterly, together with such calculations relating to the calculation of
the Planning Overage and the Profit Overage as the Council may reasonably
require."

 

I am writing to request a copy of the most recent audit report supplied to
the council under the terms of paragraph 2.4 of the agreement.

 

I am also requesting a copy of the most recent Project Cash Flow and
overage calculations supplied in accordance with paragraph 3.5 of the
agreement."

 

Please accept our apologies for the delay that occurred in responding to
your request.

 

Your request was being dealt with under Environmental Information
Regulations (EIR) 2004.

 

In response to it, we are able to provide the attached copy of the cash
flow reports.

 

Wherever the information is redacted, this is in line with regulation 12
(5) (e) under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 where
disclosure would adversely affect or be very likely to prejudice the
commercial interests of the council and / or any third party.

 

Reliance upon an exemption under the EIR is always subject to the
requirement under Regulation 12 (1) (b) that the public interest in
maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the
information.

In this instance, the council asserts that the public interest in
providing this information does not out weigh the likely prejudice to
commercial and economic interests of the third party.

 

In arriving at this view, the council has considered the following factors
both for and against the release of information.

Factors in favour of release:

•        Regulation 5 of the Environmental Information Regulations states
where a public authority holds environmental information; it shall make it
available on request and, as a starting point, the council is required to
apply a presumption in favour of disclosure.

•        The specific request is in relation to a large scale regeneration
scheme covering a large area of the borough and affecting many residents
as a result.  The sheer scale of the plans carries with it an inherent
amount of public interest.

 

Factors in favour of withholding:

 

·                The redacted information is required to protect the
development model which is a trade secret and commercial in confidence.

·                In addition, the cash flow information is derived from
the viability model and is market sensitive financial information the use
and disclosure of which needs to be managed within listing requirements.
Lend Lease is ultimately listed on the Australian stock exchange and is
subject to stock exchange rules.

·                As this project is highly significant, the disclosure of
forecast cash flow information would trigger disclosure obligations to the
stock exchange which would not otherwise be necessary and the release of
such details could affect its share price and market capitalisation, its
financial strength and resource and its reputation.

 

It is therefore the council’s assertion that the factors in favour of
withholding this very sensitive commercial information outweigh the
factors in favour of release.

 

Please also note that under the terms of the regeneration agreement and
profit or planning Overage is only payable to the council at the end of
the project. A review of overage will be undertaken at the end of each
development phase. Lend Lease have informed the council that no overage is
forecast at the end of phase 1 [Trafalgar Place].

 

2.         I would appreciate it if you would also send a copy of the
minutes taken from the generation Agreement Board meeting.

 

Please note the board was cancelled and therefore this information is not
held.

 

 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make an appeal for a review of our decision, you
should write to the Corporate Freedom of Information Manager at:

Corporate Freedom of Information Officer

The Governance Team (2^nd floor)

PO Box 64529
London

SE1P 5LX
Email: [2][Southwark Borough Council request email]

If you are not content with the outcome of your appeal, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have first
exhausted our internal appeal procedure and you should contact him within
2 months of the outcome of your internal appeal.

Further information on the Freedom of Information Act is available through
the Information Commissioner at the:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire

SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Internet: [3]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Martyna Plewniak

System Information Project Officer

 

 

 

 

The email you received and any files transmitted with it are confidential,
may be covered by legal and/or professional privilege and are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this in error please notify us immediately. If you
are not the intended recipient of the email or the person responsible for
delivering it to them you may not copy it, forward it or otherwise use it
for any purpose or disclose its contents to any other person. To do so may
be unlawful. Where opinions are expressed in the email they are not
necessarily those of Southwark Council and Southwark Council is not
responsible for any changes made to the message after it has been sent.

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D19B18.098708E0
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/