University Accomodation Project
Case reference FOI2018/00164
Published 16 October 2018
Request
I've had the attached FOI response sent over (FOI2018/00164). I'd like to pick up on the email on page three please. This appears to show that the council was in discussions with the University of Surrey regarding phase 3 accommodation on campus. What were the discussions mentioned and what had they involved up to this point? Have they progressed since? If so, how? Are the discussions related to the council's plans to invest £81million in student accommodation? If so, at the meeting when the budget was approved on February 7 the fact that councillors only had 30 days to look at the plans was raised. If discussions were ongoing in early November, why did it take two months for any other details to emerge?
Response
In May 2017, the Society Executive Advisory Board (EAB) held a private session regarding the Council's proposals for shared / traded services and income generation. The concept of the Council potentially investing in the provision of student accommodation in order to generate an income stream was discussed at a high level with the EAB and the fact it was discussed is recorded in the public minutes of the meeting. Since the May 2017 EAB, officers have been scoping out options and proposals for how the Council may undertake investment in student accommodation. A provisional bid for funding for the project was submitted to the Joint EAB on 8 January 2018 and then to Executive (end January) and full Council in February as part of the normal budget process following the outcome of an initial options appraisal and on-going discussions with relevant parties. The project is now on our provisional capital programme and will be subject to a furthe r business case before the budget is approved. The timetable for reporting the bid and accompanying information to Councillors was in accordance with our normal budget process. The Student Accommodation Project is at a very early stage and no agreements have been entered into. The business case for the project is currently being worked on and will be reported back to Council in due course.
The content of discussions with relevant parties is confidential and disclosure would prejudice the commercial interests of those parties, therefore it is exempt under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act.
The Council accepts that there is a public interest in transparency and determining how public money is spent. However, we believe that third party organisations should be able to enter into discussions with the Council without the risk of details becoming publicly available, namely to their competitors. This would affect the interests of both the Council and other organisations, and their ability to compete fairly in the future.
Disclosure would be likely to affect the Council's and third parties' revenue and income, the Council's ability to succeed in future negotiations and projects, and gain value for money, and could therefore cause significant damage to the project.
Therefore on balance the Council considers that the public interest in favour of disclosure is outweighed by the public interest in favour of maintaining the exemption.
Documents
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