1. A-Z of Services
  2. A
  3. B
  4. C
  5. D
  6. E
  7. F
  8. G
  9. H
  10. I
  11. J
  12. K
  13. L
  14. M
  15. N
  16. O
  17. P
  18. Q
  19. R
  20. S
  21. T
  22. U
  23. V
  24. W
  25. X
  26. Y
  27. Z

Agenda item

Capital Outturn and Additions - 2020/21

Minutes:

The Leader presented the report.  This report provides the final Capital outturn for the 2020/21 financial year. Specifically, it requests:

 

·        approval of budget carry forwards to fund slippage of existing project expenditure into the new financial year at £7.134m,

 

·        approval for new capital projects to be added to the Council’s Capital Programme. These are very significant at £24.795m, and

 

·        approval for a revised Strategic Outline Plan (SOP) figures for the Education Band B capital programme to be provided to Welsh Government with the intention of collectively reviewing the affordability of existing aspirations and potentially sourcing additional funding.

 

It also provides an update on the current available capital resources (‘headroom’), including the confirmation of Welsh Governments grant funding of £7m towards the new leisure centre project and impacts and action taken on that.  

 

The Council has set an extensive capital programme that reflects a seven year commitment. Table one in the reports shows how that has changed over the financial year and shows the Councils capital commitments and spend in the city now totals £274m over the life of the programme, across all service areas.

 

Table two in the report shows the position in 2020/21, which is the focus of this report. It confirms a small underspend on completed projects of £749k and the report details those. It also highlights the need for slippage on spending of £7.1m where projects delivery and spend have fallen behind the financial profile for those. The capital budget for 2020/21 has been reviewed and reduced over the year, but this slippage has still occurred and is significant at about 21% of the budget, though consistent with previous years. Details of the major areas of slippage are included in the report.

 

Slippage of the capital programme is a recurring theme and can sometimes be caused, in part at least, by late notification of external grant funding which leaves little time to deliver projects in the same year. In saying that, as the report shows, slippage, alongside the significant increase in new projects which are included here for our approval has increased the budget to about £100m in the current 2021/22 financial year.

 

This clearly now requires a review and the whole programme reviewed in terms of timing of delivery. This will happen over the Summer/early Autumn and I would ask that senior officers do this as robustly as they can – it needs to be realistic and allows the Corporate Management Team and Cabinet to take a view on that and deal with any issues it may highlight. 

 

We are also being asked to approve, as usual, new capital projects to be added to the overall programme. In this report, we have an unprecedented amount of new additions, the vast majority funded from Welsh Government grants, which were only confirmed from February onwards. Some of which had a significant impact on the city. These included:

 

·        Nearly £1.7m on ‘place-making projects’ which was currently being developed,

·        Nearly £10m on ‘active travel schemes’ which would provide a huge boost to sustainable travel within the city and surrounding areas,

·        About £2.5m of additional funding and spend to maintain school buildings, and

·        Over £6m on highway works and low emission vehicles.

 

All of these support our key priorities, the Leader was therefore pleased that the Council was able to progress on these now.

 

Comments from Cabinet Members:

 

§  Councillor Cockeram voiced his concern regarding the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) grants slippage which was £344,000.  This was a huge amount and the council would have run out of money by Christmas if this was a normal year, therefore it was giving a false reading because of the Pandemic.  Also, referred to a letter from the Welsh Government in relation to means testing and the provision of £1M funding for the whole of Wales which would mean an extra cost to the council, therefore the Cabinet Member had requested that a report to be brought to Cabinet. 

 

§  The Leader agreed that the limited opportunities and capacities of social services would impact on the Council but this was not a reflection on the level of demand for these services.

 

Decision:

 

That Cabinet:

1.      Approved the additions to the Capital Programme requested in the report (Appendix A)

2.      Approved slippage of £7,134k from the 2020/21 budget into future years, noting the re-profiling of the programme this gave rise to

3.      Noted the capital expenditure outturn position for 2020/21

4.      Endorsed provision of information to Welsh Government to review Band B schools transformation programme costs

5.      Noted the available remaining capital resources (‘headroom’) until 2024/25

Noted the balance of and approve the allocation of in-year capital receipts

Supporting documents: