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 2024/25 at Quarter 2.

·      To approve the additional schemes within Quarter 2 amounting to £3.116m to the capital programme and amendments to funding as per Appendix C to the report, which will result in a revised capital budget of £72.477m for 2024/25.

·      To approve the carry forward of potential underspend as noted in section 4.2 of the report.

The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer setting out the financial performance of the Council’s capital budget at the end of Quarter 2, 2024/25 was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

The report was presented by Councillor Robin Williams, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Member for Finance and showed actual expenditure of £22.781m to the end of 30 September 2024, against a capital budget of £72.477m with a further £2.84m committed expenditure bringing the total to £25.585m or 35% of the overall budget. The projected expenditure to the end of the financial year is £66.980m giving a forecast underspend of £5.497m as potential slippage into 2025/26, detailed in table 4.1 of the report. The funding for this slippage will also slip into 2025/26 and will be factored in when producing the Treasury Management Statement, Capital Strategy and Capital Programme for 2025/26.

The Director of Function (Resources)/ Section 151 Officer referred to the capital grant schemes in the capital programme and to the Council’s increasing dependency on grant funding to support capital activity. He confirmed that the majority of projects are progressing and are on course to be completed within budget and that the level of underspend has reduced but advised that project timelines and budgets can be affected by adverse weather events in the Quarter 3 winter period.

The Executive acknowledged that grant funding is not the most effective way of funding because of the uncertainty involved but recognised the Officer time, expertise and effort that had gone into securing the grants for the range of projects documented.

It was resolved –

·           To note the progress of expenditure and receipts against the capital budget 2024/25 at Quarter 2.

·           To approve the additional schemes within Quarter 2 amounting to £3.116m to the capital programme and amendments to funding as per Appendix C to the report, which will result in a revised capital budget of £72.477m for 2024/25.

·           To approve the carry forward of potential underspend as noted in section 4.2 of the report.