Agenda item

The Leader presented the report and confirmed 2018/19 was the first year of an extensive and challenging 5-year Capital Programme which currently stands at over £170m.  The report updated Cabinet on the final outturn position for 2018/19 and the resulting slippage.  It also requested additions to the overall capital programme and highlighted the capital receipts’ position and the remaining available headroom to fund future capital projects within the life of the programme, as currently afforded within the Council’s medium term budget projections.

The Leader drew attention to the additions and changes to the programme since the last report to Cabinet. 

Appendix C summarised the changes to the programme which includes further slippage from 2018/19 into 2019/20 and 2020/21 of £4.2m and £0.5m respectively.   This takes the total slippage agreed during the year to £14.7m.  The Leader confirmed that officers will now undertake a thorough review of the programme to ensure that budgets are appropriately profiled and this will be updated in the next monitoring and additions’ report to Cabinet. 

In terms of additions, there has been a significant increase in the programme of over £14.7m worth of capital expenditure being added to the overall 5-year programme.  The detail of this is included in the report, and shows the continued investment that is taking place within Newport.  Some of the headline additions include but are not limited to:

·         Welsh Government grants for schools including additional schools’ maintenance grant of £1.8m and £580k grant for reducing class sizes at St Woolos Primary School;

·         Funding, including loan funding for developments at Mill Street Sorting Office, Newport Market and Chartist Tower;

·         A number of grants received from the Local Transport Fund and Active Travel including developing safe routes, sustainable transport, bus stop enhancement and the development of the Devon Place Footbridge Scheme.

The majority of additions have been funded through grants, reserves from the in-year revenue underspend or from loan funding, and therefore do not have an impact on the overall capital headroom available for future projects, which currently stands at £18.8m. 

The Leader further reported on the overall outturn for 2018/19.  The overall variance against budget in 2018/19 was £5.5m and as previously mentioned, £4.7m of this has slipped into future years, leaving an overall underspend at year end of £799k on projects that have been completed.  The detail of this is shown in Appendix A of the report.

Finally, the capital receipts position shows the Council received £2.3m of receipts during the year, and utilised £3.1m, it has also committed to utilising c£4m of receipts in the current capital programme, leaving uncommitted capital receipts balance of £2.4m.  There is a further £1.2m of uncommitted capital receipts relating to the Newport Unlimited Joint Venture, which are attributable to the joint arrangement between the City Council and Welsh Government.

Cabinet Members welcomed the report and agreed with prudential borrowing when necessary and in accordance with the advice from the Council’s Section 151 Officer and the Council’s Monitoring Officer. 

Decision:

1)    Cabinet agreed to approve the changes to the Capital Programme and note the outturn position as set out in the report, including the use of capital receipts.

2)    Agreed to prioritise capital expenditure to maintain spend within the current affordability envelope.