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Agenda item

Capital Strategy Report - 2019/20 to 2023/24

Report of the Interim Section 151 Officer.

Minutes:

5.1   Councillor Rachael Robathan, Cabinet Member for Finance, Property & Regeneration, introduced the report which set out the Capital Strategy for the next 15 years. She stated that the Strategy is hugely important and ambitious and aims to deliver the City for All ambitions for the whole of the city and in particular the provision of much-needed affordable homes. She thanked finance officers for all of their work in developing the strategy.

 

5.2   David Hodgkinson, Interim Section 151 Officer, considered the Capital Programme to be robust, deliverable and affordable.  He referred Cabinet to the risks to the programme as set out in Section 12 of the report and how these would be managed.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Cabinet recommended that full Council:

 

1.     Approve the capital strategy as set out in the report.

 

2.          Approve the capital expenditure for the General Fund as set out in Appendix A to the report for 2019/20 to 2023/24 and future years to 2032/33.

 

3.          Approve the capital expenditure forecasts for the General Fund as set out in Appendix A to the report for 2018/19 (Period 8).

 

4.          Approve the expenditure forecast for 2018/19 (Period 8) for the HRA as set out in Appendix B to the report.

 

5.          Approve the capital expenditure for the HRA for 2019/20 to 2023/24 as in accordance with the 30 year HRA Business Plan and as included in Appendix B to the report.

 

6.          Approve the financial implications of the HRA capital programme including the references to the debt cap and the level of reserves as detailed in Section 8 to the report.

 

7.          Approve that in the event that any additional expenditure is required by a capital scheme over and above this approved programme the revenue consequences of this will be financed by revenue savings or income generation from relevant service areas.

 

8.          Approve that all development and investment projects, along with all significant projects follow the previously approved business case governance process as set out in paragraphs 5.1 and 6.5 to 6.14 to the report.

 

9.          Approve that no financing sources, unless stipulated in regulations or necessary agreements, are ring fenced.

 

10.       Approve that contingencies in respect of major projects are held corporately, with bids for access to those contingencies to be approved by the Capital Review Group (CRG) in the event that they are required to fund capital project costs, as detailed in Sections 12.11 to 12.14 to the report.

11.        Approve the council plans to continue its use of capital receipts to fund the revenue costs of eligible proposals (subject to full business cases for each project). This comes under the MHCLG Guidance on the Flexible Use of Capital Receipts (FCR), if considered beneficial to the Council’s finances by the City Treasurer at year-end. (The Council’s strategy for flexible use of capital receipts is outlined in section 11 to the report).

 

12.        Note the continued use of flexible use capital receipts (as approved at November Council) to fund revenue costs associated with City Hall, Network and Telephony Transformation and Technology Refresh projects as detailed in section 11.9 and 11.14 to 11.28 to the report.

 

13.        Note the Council’s proposal to make use of £400m of forward borrowing to finance the capital programme and subsequently reduce the longer-term revenue impact, as approved by Full Council in November 2018.

 

14.        Approve the financing of the capital programme and revenue implications as set out in paragraphs 14.1 to 14.30 to the report.

 

15.        Approve the financing of the capital programme being delegated to the City Treasurer at the year end and to provide sufficient flexibility to allow for the most effective use of Council resources. 

 

Reasons for Decision

 

The Council is required to set a balanced budget, and the capital programme, together with the governance process, which monitors and manages the programme, forms part of this process.

 

Supporting documents: