Issue - meetings

RESOLVED: That Cabinet;

a) Noted the latest capital monitoring position for the GF and HRA

b) Noted the new schemes that have been approved since the Q1 Capital Report which was presented to Cabinet in September 2021.

c) Noted the virements that have been approved since the last report

REASONS RESOLVED: In order to ensure sound management of the council’s finances.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

None

At the Chair’s invitation Councillor Malcolm Longley presented the report, copies of which had been previously circulated. Cabinet was advised that a Capital Assets board had been created which would include The Executive Director of Finance, Councillor Malcolm Longley and Councillor Lizzy Bowen. All future capital projects would come through the board. Members were informed that there were a large number of projects in the pipeline.

Councillors made the following comments.

·         Did the costs mentioned in the report include the increase in the cost of materials?

·         It was queried whether the school building costs would be received from central Government.

·         It was noted that schools were still having to fund their own covid-prevention measures.

·         The Disabled Facilities grant was mentioned. Details of where this money would be spent were requested.

·         It was noted that there were many programmes from the previous authorities in progress, how many would be reliant on funding provision?

·         The Active Travel scheme and its rephasing had been mentioned in the report, could what was meant by this be clarified with a full briefing?

·         The EV charge points project had been agreed for specific areas, was this still going ahead?

The Executive Director of Finance advised that there was a plan to capitalise revenue and transformational costs. There were various funds available to Educations schemes, this information would be provided. The re-phasing that had been mentioned was ‘slippage’ that would be moved forward.

Councillor Fiona Baker advised that any expenditure related to Covid within schools was dealt with by the Department of Education.

Councillor Matt Golby advised that the Health and Wellbeing Board would send any relevant information when requested.

Councillor Lizzy Bowen mentioned that contingency plans were always in place when dealing with construction costs, these were reviewed regularly at the Capital and Assets Board.

Councillor Phil Larratt advised that the active travel scheme was still being working on with various ideas coming through.

The Executive Director of Place and Economy advised that he would have to take away the question regarding EV charge points and come back with an answer.