Commercial Times

Issue 1 Winter/Spring 2015

Get Updated, Get Inspired, Get Involved

T

he Commercial Team welcome you to this new publication — Commercial Times which will provide staff with quarterly updates on the Council’s developing commercial portfolio. The team have been seconded to act as a business partner for services and offer constructive challenge to the Authority’s income generation activities.

It’s clear that we cannot make the £81m requirement over 3 years by savings only - we have to increase income from a variety of sources.

The commercial team have been tasked primarily to increase charges based on full cost recovery, ensure that services become self sufficient as well as identify opportunities to provide new services and realise increased income through sponsorship, advertising and promotional activity.

The overriding aim is to ensure that services are providing value for money for Swansea’s residents and that we can protect as many jobs as possible.

Dean Taylor Director—Corporate Services “This newsletter is part of our plan to raise awareness about becoming a more commercial organisation.

This aim is important for several reasons:

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Project Update

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New income

Page 2

What a Liberty

Page 2

Toolkits

Page 3

Advertising Page 3 This an excellent opportunity to transform services in the Council to Income & Trading Q&A Page 4 Staff Suggestions Page 4 achieve commercial objectives.

The new spending restrictions have come into force as of February 2015 and it is imperative that we are as lean as possible in terms of discretionary spend. The restrictions offer some key principles, specific instructions and general housekeeping guidelines & can be found on staffnet.

See how you can submit your ideas >>>>> Page 4 >>>>>>

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Increased income can offset the loss of grant and help to protect services and jobs.

We need to be more business like, to protect the public purse and get the best deal we can.

By developing commercial skills we can exploit our ability to trade and sell services.

These objectives are reflected in Sustainable Swansea and in our recent peer review. I look forward to hearing your ideas about how we can achieve this.”

Commercial Team—Supporting the Income Generation Strand of Sustainable Swansea

Commercial Team—Supporting the Income Generation Strand of Sustainable Swansea

Fees for credit card transactions have been introduced as well as fee increases for Land Charges & Common Land searches.

The Hanging Baskets scheme is a successful example of a service developing in a market. Sales figures are up from this time last year with an increased focus on marketing.

Swansea Mobility Hire is undergoing a revamp with revised fees to increase income, and more excitingly a brand new service is being piloted to introduce kiddie cabs for hire around the City Centre. Marketing activity is due to commence shortly.

Kent County Council’s Legal Service generates over £2.4m per year in profits to re-invest in Council Services.

They operate as a joint venture and serve over 600 clients nationwide.

Leeds City Council is rolling out free Wi-Fi in parts of the city to help residents on low incomes or with poor connectivity to get online. The new contract, with Leeds-based company aql, follows the council’s move to install free Wi-Fi in more than 100 council buildings under the Super Connected Cities programme.

The service will be provided at no cost to the council and will see aql’s Wi-Fi devices mounted on street lighting columns.

For years, parking problems have been experienced around the Liberty Stadium on match days.

Car Parks with support from the Commercial Team are attempting to alleviate the problems by providing a priority parking scheme at Landore Park & Ride.

For just £99 per season allows car owners to park safely and securely at designated spaces. Take up has been well received with over 70 applications received.

From April 1st, offers will be available for the 2015/2016 season. www.swansea.gov.uk/swansparking

One of the first phases of the income generation work was to apply the key principles outlined in the Charging policy agreed by Cabinet in March 2014.

This outlines that fees are to be set to recover the full cost of providing the service in question. Where this hasn’t been possible services, in partnership with the Commercial Team, have been liaising to increase fees to reduce the amount of budget it receives to operate.

The Council now has for the first time, a central register of charges for our discretionary services and this will form a visible document for our staff and the public.

Commercial.team@swansea.gov.uk 01792 636103 or 01792 635457

Commercial Team—Supporting the Income Generation Strand of Sustainable Swansea

The City and County of Swansea are committed to position Swansea as a distinctive, lifestyle City, and redevelopment of the St Davids and Civic Centre areas will provide a significant step in this direction.

The vision encompasses retail and leisure schemes, tourist attractions, and offices alongside high quality commercial and residential buildings, all linked by a high quality public realm.

The Civic Centre site has been heralded as the No. 1 opportunity in Wales and the conceptual image and video ‘fly through’ that have been produced give a thrilling conceptualisation of what developers may aspire to.

These exciting opportunities have been widely marketed in property circles and launch events in London and Swansea were very well attended by potential developers, advisors and investors.

We will keep you updated as commercial opportunities develop with this fantastic scheme.

The Commercial Team are supporting a number of services to progress their ideas into deliverable income streams and a number of alternative and innovative proposals are being developed.

Crowdfunding is being used increasingly by Local Authorities to fund projects in partnerships with communities with a number of benefits realised. A toolkit is to be developed to raise awareness of how CCOS can embrace it.

A one-stop shop is being developed as a signposting exercise for all commercial enquiries and a brochure is being developed to encompass our sponsorship, advertising & lettings portfolios.

Toolkits are being devised to assist you with your staff suggestions. They will contain some simple business questions to help understand how we can turn your Ideas into a strong business case.

Contact the Commercial Team to find out more!

Swansea Bus Station reaching over 1/4 million visitors every week. Large poster, washrooms and screen advertising available from as little as £50 per week.

Advertise your community message by advertising on our fleet vehicles which are out and about daily for only £25 per week.

Get in front of our young people and advertise your service in the schools pupil planners.

Reach 106,000 Swansea homes with our own bilingual , bi-monthly newspaper ‘The Swansea Leader’.

It’s not too early to be thinking about your winter 2015 campaigns…

Waterfront Winterland attracted over 150,000 visitors (2014) .

You can even adopt a Penguin !

Commercial.team@swansea.gov.uk 01792 636103 or 01792 635457

Commercial Team—Supporting the Income Generation Strand of Sustainable Swansea

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he Council is coming to terms with an unprecedented budgetary situation, and it is clear that the £81m recently reported cannot be met by savings only. In short, the more income we receive will mitigate the need for further job losses. A number of FAQ’s have been put together to help staff understand income generation.  Where will the savings go?

If income is increased within a service then they will require less budget, so when all of this is embedded, the income target for the service or unit in question will mean that a lower budget is given.

Therefore the saving is realised. There is no central pot of savings, we simply have to reduce budgets.  Why would we charge for services?

If we can increase income and start trading our services, then that will provide a leaner more commercial and cost effective operation which will enable us to maintain services for the citizens we work for.

We have to look at it as a different way of working. In order to sustain services going forward and to mitigate future budget cuts, the more selfsufficient we are, the better prepared we’ll be. 

How does this save jobs?

Last year the Council was asked to make cuts—the upshot of which means redundancies are inevitable.

If a service achieves a level of budget independence (i.e. doesn’t rely on subsidy to operate) then it is insulated to some extent against further cuts. 

But if we charge more for our services, less people will use them won’t they?

If you charge more for a service there is a risk that less people may use it. However, we won’t actually know this for sure until we do it. But to avoid shooting ourselves in the foot, the analysis carried out on any business case proposal will take this factor into account. 

Did you know that Aylesbury Vale District Council’s garden waste collection service generated over £450,000 in its first year. A new service for existing recycling customers was established which was branded “save a trip to the tip.”

A similar scheme here is being scoped for feasibility currently.

The Council has a wide variety of staff and it’s clear that we have the knowledge, skills and expertise within the organisation to identify and progress income opportunities.

To date, the team has received over 200 income & saving suggestions. These are at varying stages of progression but we have already seen examples of these suggestions being implemented.

If you would like to contribute, have ideas for savings or income opportunities or even a suggestion which has previously been rejected for service reasons, the Commercial Team would be delighted to hear from you. We are your partners and we need you to help us to help you!

Commercial.team@swansea.gov.uk 01792 636103 or 01792 635457