Mr Whittle
OED
MOGD 406/2
19 OCT 1993
tile copy
GISEST
lant.
Reference
406/2
99
HONG KONG CONSULATE GENERAL:
BRITISH COUNCIL
1. Thank you and copy addressees for meeting with me and with the British Council at the end of last month to follow up Mr Hum's meeting with Mr Davey on 21 September.
2.
We agreed that OED and the British Council would need to do some more number crunching on running costs, and that we should then collectively assemble a package, including a rent element, which would (a) meet the Treasury's concerns that the FCO should not subsidize non grant-in-aid activities of the Council and (b) not cost more than the British Council's budget for accommodation and running costs. We recognised that OED and the British Council would also need to work out the conditions of a licence/lease (who to pay for major overhauls in the future, external fabric of the building and so on).
3.
We thought that a meeting with the Treasury (Mr Marr) might then be the next step, although we recognised that those attending would need to prepare carefully for the meeting. The alternative would be to return to the Treasury at a higher level, possibly even Ministerial; we thought it would be sensible to take further soundings of the Treasury face to face and understand better where the sticking point lies for them before submitting, if it came to that.
4.
We had various ideas about how we might present the basis for rent to be charged. What proportion of space occupied by the British Council was dedicated to grant-in-aid activities, and how much to non grant-in-aid? (Could we charge for the latter only?) What was an appropriate marker for establishing a post Henessy Road rent - not space in the up market district around the new building, but rather properties in outlying areas. Indeed, if establishing post 1996 strategy from scratch, the Council might plan a central HQ and satellite classrooms. They would seek to rent classrooms here and there to allow them to be sensitive to demand post 1997. The Council explained to us that they would probably seek to acquire a proportion of the space for nothing (eg as a form of sponsorship) if they were planning post Henessy Road accommodation.
These thoughts will need further development. The first stage is an agreed estimate of running costs. Are you able to provide this yet? I would be grateful if you could let Mr
5.
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