Minutes:
Councillor Snell introduced the
report and explained that it outlined the capital programme from
2024/25 until 2028/29. He stated that the programme had been
reviewed in line with government directions, so no longer included
some projects, and had been extended from three to five years. In
2023 the capital programme had capital spending at £202m over
three years, but this had expanded to £275m in quarter one of
2023/24, of which £155m was to be funded through borrowing
and £121m from external funding. Before March 2023 previously
approved bids totalling £119m had been put on hold and were
not included in the £202m of capital spending. Councillor
Snell explained that following the review of the capital programme,
£101m had been removed from budgets to reduce capital
expenditure and to comply with the Section 114 notice. Councillor
Snell summarised and stated that the report had been through the
scrutiny process.
RESOLVED: that
Cabinet:
1.1 Recommended to Full Council
to:
a. Approve the revised capital
programme and 5 year capital programme for 2024/25 to 2028/29 as
set out in the report.
b. Approve that the capital
projects:
(i) currently ‘on hold’ totalling £119.0m (see
Appendix 2) are not included in the Capital Programme and the
associated borrowing of £62.9m is not required;
(ii) the capital
schemes that have not started totalling £3.3m (see Appendix
4) are also formally confirmed as removed from the capital
programme and the associated borrowing of £3.3m is not
required;
(iii) those schemes assessed and considered no longer necessary
totalling £60.1m (see Appendix 5) are confirmed as removed
from the capital programme and the associated borrowing of
£56.5m is not required.
c. Approve the proposed financing of
the capital programme as set out in Appendix 3.
d. Delegate to the Interim Director
of Finance s151 all decisions surrounding the financing of
individual items of expenditure within the revised capital
programme, in line with the overall capital programme as set out in
Appendix 3, in a manner which achieves the most effective use of
Council’s resources.
e. Approve that any future changes
to the capital programme should be approved by Full Council, whilst
ensuring that external funding is able to be used in a timely
manner, with any new borrowing requirements subject to Commissioner
approval.
f. Approve that the Capital
Programme Board review and receive updates on the action plans put
in place to address the further improvements identified in Appendix
7 and to note progress on continued delivery of these
improvements.
Reason for decision: as outlined in
the report.
This decision is subject to call in.
Supporting documents: