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 2024/25 and to forward the same to the Full Council without further comment.

The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer incorporating the Treasury Management Strategy Statement (TMSS) for 2024/25 was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

Councillor Robin Williams, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Member for Finance presented the report as outlining the Council’s strategy for managing borrowing and investment for the 2024/25 financial year supported by prudential and treasury indicators as set out in Appendix 11 to the report. The TMSS sets out the borrowing necessary to fund the capital programme as well as the criteria for investing the Council’s cash and was scrutinised by the Governance and Audit Committee at its 8 February 2024 meeting where it was resolved to forward it to the Executive without further comment.

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer advised that a change in the approach to borrowing is envisaged over the course of the 2024/25 Treasury Management strategy. As the Council’s cash reserves are utilised to contribute to balancing the budget and the HRA reserve is utilised to fund capital expenditure, the amount of cash balances will reduce significantly thereby reducing the sums available to invest as well as the level of internal borrowing that can be supported. It is anticipated that additional external borrowing will therefore have to be undertaken to fund the Council’s capital programme requirements. The Section 151 Officer further advised that any external borrowing will be scheduled so as to minimise the rates at which the Council borrows thereby reducing the cost to the revenue budget.

It was resolved to note the Treasury Management Strategy Statement for 2024/25 and to forward the same to the Full Council without further comment.