Agenda item

The Executive received details of the proposed 2017/18 Capital Programme, as shown in Annex A to the agenda report. The Council no longer held a Capital Receipts Reserve.  As a result, only in-year receipts could be offset against the proposed spend. Annex C to the agenda report showed that it would not be possible to fund the current Capital Programme from capital receipts and that existing revenue and/or borrowing would have to be used.  Additional capital receipts could be realised from the sale of Council assets although there was a risk, in the current climate, that prices would be depressed or that such disposals would not be realised.

The Revenue Capital Fund was estimated to be about £9.0m at 31 March 2017 and would be used to support the Capital Programme if required. However this would reduced the amount of reserve available to support revenue expenditure and hence the General Fund in the future. The Council had undertaken borrowing during 2016/17 to fund significant property acquisitions and should be prepared to do this again should the need arise.

The Executive noted the estimated loss of investment income as a result of the proposed Capital Programme, based on the estimated average rate of poorest performing investments of 0.6% for 2016/17.

Additional capital schemes might be brought during the year for the Executive and Council to consider. These might result in a change to the Prudential Indicators, the Capital Financing Requirement and the Minimum Revenue Payment.  If this was the case, those changes would be reflected in the relevant reports for the Executive and the Council to consider.

Recommended to the Council that

(i)              the new capital bids for £3,871k, in Annex A to the agenda report, for 2017/18 be approved, and be incorporated into the Capital Programme;

(ii)            the Prudential Indicators summarised below and explained in Annex D to the agenda report, including the MRP statement, for 2017/18 to 2019/20, in accordance with the requirements of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities 2011, be approved:

Resolved to note

(i)              that the Capital Financing Requirement for this Council as at 31 March 2018 was estimated to be £140.653m and as such a Minimum Revenue Payment of £1,392k was required;

(ii)            the provisional Capital Programme for 2018/19 and 2019/20; and

(iii)          the available capital receipts forecast shown in Annex C to the agenda report.