Council defends £700k Costa investment
South Somerset District Council says the purchase has been "rigorously assessed" to get "the best deal for taxpayers".
A Somerset council has defended its recent decision to spent taxpayers’ money on a branch of Costa Coffee.
South Somerset District Council has allocated £700,000 in its budget towards this investment, with the money being made available until April 2022.
The council said the purchase had been “rigorously assessed” to get “the best deal for taxpayers”, arguing this section of hospitality had not been hit by the coronavirus pandemic to the same extent as other areas.
This investment comes as the council submitted plans to build a new coffee shop in the car park of the B&Q store in Glastonbury, which it purchased as a separate commercial investment in 2019.
Details of the Costa investment were published as part of the council’s capital programme for the coming years before a meeting of its district executive committee on Thursday (February 4).
The programme lists the project as ‘Investment in Property – Costa Coffee’, identifying £20,000 within the next 12 months and a further £680,000 up to April 2022 – suggesting that the branch has not yet been constructed.
Councillor John Clark, portfolio holder for economic development, argued the pandemic had not adversely affected the council’s current investments and defended the Costa investment on these grounds.
He said: “Every commercial decision we take is rigorously assessed as we want to get the best deals for taxpayers while minimising the risk.
“It is a strategy which continues to be a success, as our investments continue to bring in income which supports vital services and helps fund the projects which will help our towns, which have been hit by the covid-19 pandemic, recover.
“This careful approach to investment is borne out through the fact that we are still receiving nearly 100 per cent of rent and our portfolio is delivering the return of circa seven per cent, which was our target.
“We will continue to take a prudent approach to investments and it is important to remember that ‘retail’ and ‘hospitality’ cover two very broad commercial property market sectors.”
Mr Clark said the council had no plans to invest further in high street retail since businesses selling non-essential goods posed a “significant risk” for as long as the pandemic continued.
He added: “Much of the high street, selling non-essential goods, has been closed for large proportions of the past 12 months.
“We currently consider this sector to represent a significant risk, explaining why there are currently no plans to invest in high street retail to generate income.
“All of our current retail units, however, are considered essential and have remained open throughout the pandemic.
“Similarly, drive-thru coffee units have remained open, while high street units have been closed. This has sped up a trend towards out-of-town drive thru coffee shops.
“In any portfolio, diversification is key to mitigating risk. We consider it prudent to maintain a broad base of commercial property interests, and invests to diversify income on a case-by-case basis.”
The council has not confirmed the location of the Costa branch in question, citing commercial sensitivity.
It also declined to confirm whether its planned coffee stop in Glastonbury would be a Costa branch or would be operated by a different company.
The council submitted plans in mid-January to build a coffee shop in the car park of the B&Q store on Wirral Park Road, which it purchased in September 2019 for £4.4M.
The shop and drive thru will sit at the south-east corner of the site, with access being from the existing B&Q car park, and will include an outside seating area.
Mendip District Council (which makes decisions on planning applications in Glastonbury) is expected to make a ruling on the plans later in the year.