Agenda item

The Executive RECOMMENDED to Full Council that:

(i)            the new capital bids for £1.241m for 2021/22, as set out at Annex A to the agenda report, as amended, be approved and that they be incorporated into the Capital Programme;

(ii)          The Prudential Indicators summarised below and explained in Annex C of the agenda report, as amended, including the MRP statement, for 2021/22 to 2023/24 in accordance with the requirements of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s (CIPFA) Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities 2011 be approved.

The Executive RESOLVED to note

(i)            the Capital Financing Requirement for this Council as at 31 March 2022 is estimated to be £182m and as such a Minimum Revenue Payment of £2.3m is required

(ii)          the provisional Capital Programme for 2021/22 to 2023/24; and

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

Executive Heads of Service had been required to present capital bids for 2021/22; which had then been considered by the Corporate Management Team prior to submission to the Executive. Bids had only been considered if they met a statutory obligation or it could be demonstrated that they would be self-funding.

The Council was free to borrow for capital purposes only up to the level of its Capital Funding Requirement provided that this was below the “authorised limit”. It was noted that for each asset the Council must, by law, make a revenue provision for repayment for each year.

If additional capital receipts were realised from the sale of Council assets they would be applied against capital spend, thereby reducing borrowing.

The Revenue Capital Fund was estimated to be about £11m at 31 March 2022 and could be used to support the Capital Programme if required. However this reduced the amount of reserve available to support revenue expenditure and hence the General Fund in the future.

The Executive received details of the proposed 2021/22 Capital Programme in the sum of £1.141m. The Council held surplus capital receipts and these receipts would be sufficient to fund the entire capital programme and therefore no existing revenue and/or borrowing would have to be used.

However the Executive was advised that the Governance Working Group, at its meeting on 11 February 2021, had received a report relating to the upgrading of the outdated conferencing and audio-visual equipment in the Council Chamber.  The Working Group had noted that upgrading the facilities would also provide an opportunity to provide additional features such as electronic voting, contactless communication technology and improved lighting.  Three quotations had been obtained from Zoom accredited partners which had offered a variety of solutions to the Council’s needs. The Working Group had resolved that the Council be informed that it supported the upgrading and modernising of the technological facilities in the Council Chamber as soon as possible. 

As a result the Council was asked to include an additional £100k in the Capital Programme 2021/22 – 2023/4 and noted that a full report would be submitted to the Executive on the options for upgrading facilities and the costs involved.

RECOMMENDED to Full Council that:

(i)        the new capital bids for £1.241m for 2021/22, as set out at Annex A to the agenda report, as amended, be approved and that they be incorporated into the Capital Programme;

(ii)       The Prudential Indicators summarised below and explained in Annex C of the agenda report, as amended, including the MRP statement, for 2021/22 to 2023/24 in accordance with the requirements of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s (CIPFA) Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities 2011 be approved.

RESOLVED to note

(i)        the Capital Financing Requirement for this Council as at 31 March 2022 is estimated to be £182m and as such a Minimum Revenue Payment of £2.3m is required

(ii)      the provisional Capital Programme for 2021/22 to 2023/24; and

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