COLCHESTER Council’s commercial firm is expecting to lose out on £300,000 of profit due to the coronavirus pandemic, the authority has revealed.

The latest report for Colchester Commercial Holdings Limited (CCHL) is predicting it will deliver a dividend of £226,000 to the council in 2020/21.

In the last financial year the firm brought in £394,000 for the council to reinvest in services and bosses were predicting an increase of £135,000 to £529,000.

However with lockdown restrictions severely effecting commercial operations, such as Colchester Events Company, this figure has decreased by 57 per cent.

A report, set to go before the authority’s governance and audit committee next week, states: “Work is ongoing to maximise the dividend to the council by reviewing the weekly Government updates on the easing of the Covid-19 lockdown and updating the Amphora Business Recovery Plan.”

“As further updates to the Business Recovery Plan and forecast dividend are available CCHL will update the Governance and Audit Committee.”

The firm’s year end report states it brought in income of £6.7 million with a pre-tax profit of around £486,000 in 2020/21.

A record number of events took place at council venues last year, bringing in £50,000 more in income than expected, but many at the start of 2020/21 have had to be deferred due to the impacts of the pandemic.

The report states: “The final year end position was impacted by cancelled and deferred events in March as a result of Covid-19, with a forecast lost earning opportunity of an additional £18,000 profit.

“We continue to work with promoters, companies and residents in deferring where possible their events and weddings.

“This has resulted in a condensed outdoor programme for 2020 and a busy second half of the year for the Charter Hall programme.”

CCHL is made up of Colchester Amphora Homes, Colchester Amphora Trading and Colchester Amphora Energy and employs 135 people.

It is working on projects such as the Northern Gateway Sports Park and its heat network as well as the delivery of a Local Full Fibre Network across the urban part of the town. Plans also include the delivery of 500 homes, 30 per cent of which will be affordable properties.