Minutes:
Sally Burlington (Head of Policy) introduced the report which provided the Board with an update on work to identify potential founding members of a local government mutual, and details on arrangements for an initial meeting to be arranged for November 2017.
Members noted that good progress had been made to identify councils to become founding members of the mutual. The Lead Adviser for the Mutual had visited 22 local authorities since June 2017, and had arranged to visit a further 28. 10 authorities had signed up to date, and it was hoped that more larger authorities would sign up in due course.
It was highlighted that an initial meeting was proposed for 3 November 2017 where the mutual would be founded. A second meeting would agree the procurement documents. The LGA’s Commercial Advisory Board was working on a joint venture arrangements to provide professional services to the mutual.
In the discussion which followed, the following points were raised by Members:
· No London Borough Councils had signed up to the mutual to date, but they were one of the groups the LGA were working with through the London treasurers group.
· It was confirmed that there would be no financial agreement for founding members of the mutual at this stage. There were significant tax advantages in forming a mutual, which would hopefully present a significant saving to councils.
· When founding members were willing to provide information on their councils’ claims history officers would be able to consider the various types of risk which would require insurance.
· It was agreed that Cllr Claire Kober OBE would represent the LGA at the first meeting of the founding members.
Decision
The Resources Board:
a) noted the draft decision document for local authorities and the draft consultation documents for the mutual itself; and
b) agreed that the Resources Board should convene the first meeting of the Founding Members on 3 November 2017 and nominate Cllr Claire Kober OBE to attend as the representative of the LGA.