Issue - meetings

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

It was resolved to note the Treasury Management Strategy Statement for 2023/24 and to forward the report to the Full Council without further comment.

The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer incorporating the Treasury Management Strategy Statement for 2023/24 was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

The Portfolio Member for Finance, Corporate Business and Customer Experience and  reported that the Treasury Management Strategy Statement (TMSS) is presented to ensure that the Council is implementing best practice with regard to its treasury management operations in accordance with the CIPFA Code of Practice for Treasury Management. The TMSS was scrutinised by the Governance and Audit Committee at its meeting on 7 February, 2023.

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer advised that the report sets out the Council’s borrowing and investment strategy for 2023/24 and does not differ significantly from the previous year’s strategy in maintaining an investment approach that seeks to ensure the security of its investment, liquidity in being able to access cash when needed and then return on investment. However, the Council will be actively seeking to take advantage of improved interest rates in 2023/24 to maximise investment returns within those priorities. As regards borrowing the Council has been using internal resources to fund capital expenditure and will continue to maintain a position of only borrowing according to need. But with interest rates rising the benefits of internal/external borrowing will be monitored to ensure that short term savings by not undertaking new long term borrowing in 2023/24 are not outweighed by the potential for incurring additional costs from delaying new external borrowing. The strategy also sets out at Appendix 12 the Prudential Indicators by which treasury activity will be monitored during the year.

The Chair highlighted that the CIPFA Treasury Management Code requires the responsible officer to ensure that Elected Members with responsibility for treasury management receive adequate training in treasury management and he confirmed that this training has been delivered.

It was resolved to note the Treasury Management Strategy Statement for 2023/24 and to forward the report to the Full Council without further comment.