Issue - meetings

To submit a report by the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer.

It was resolved –

·      To note the progress of expenditure and receipts against the capital budget 2022/23 at Quarter 2.

·      To approve the increase in the budget for Melin Llynnon as per section 4.2 of the report.

The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer setting out the performance of the 2022/23 capital budget at Quarter 2 was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

Councillor Ieuan Williams, Portfolio Member for Education and the Welsh Language presented the report saying that the total capital budget for 2022/23 is £52.725m which sum includes the Housing Revenue Account capital programme, capital slippage from 2021/22 and additional schemes which have come onto the programme as capital grants become available. (An update of the capital grant schemes in the 2022/23 capital programme was provided in the report). While the profiled budget spent to the end of the second quarter for the general fund is 103%, only 37% of the annual budget has been spent to date mainly because a number of the capital schemes are weighted towards the latter part of the financial year. The forecast underspend on the Capital Programme for 2022/23 is £5.572m with this being potential slippage into 2023/24 with the main contributor being a significant forecast underspend within the HRA. The funding for this slippage will also slip into 2023/24 and will be factored in to the 2023/24 Treasury Management Strategy Statement, Capital Strategy and Capital Programme. The Melin Llynnon scheme foresees increased costs and as such has requested approval of additional funding to enable the full scheme to be completed.

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer advised that the 2023/24 Capital Budget is unlikely to increase by any significant amount although the costs of capital projects are rising thereby limiting what the Council is able to do in terms of capital expenditure; the general capital grant has remained largely static with an increasing proportion of the funding being spent on maintaining existing assets and less on new or growth schemes meaning that it is becoming more difficult each year to set a capital budget that moves the Island forward. An increasing amount of capital expenditure is also funded by external grants many of which are tied to specific projects.

The Chief Executive highlighted also that many of the grants awarded are competitive meaning that time and resources are required to prepare applications and develop business cases for the competitive process.

The Executive noted that a reducing capital budget provides an additional challenge in terms of being able to implement schemes that have a positive effect on communities and also as regards managing a budget that does match expectations and/or aspirations.

It was resolved –

·      To note the progress of expenditure and receipts against the capital budget 2022/23 at Quarter 2.

·      To approve the increase in the budget for Melin Llynnon as per section 4.2 of the report.