Issue - items at meetings - Capital Resources & Capital Investment Programme 2013/14

Report of the Director of Finance (to be circulated).

RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND: That the following be approved:-

·               The Capital Investment Programme for 2013/14 in appendix 1;

·               Note the estimated capital resources in future years as detailed in appendix 1;

·               To allocate £0.250m resources in 2013/14 for the Strategic Investment Fund for the purposes set out in paragraph 3.25;

·               To allocate £1.000m for the ICT fund;

·               To allocate £1.000m for the Asset Management Fund;

·               The proposed use of council borrowing as set out in paragraph 3.17 and appendix 3.

143.1          The Director of Finance introduced the report which detailed the level of available capital resources in 2013/14 which could be used for a Capital Investment Programme for 2013/14 if approved at the Budget Council meeting on the 28^th February.  She noted that the budget had faced similar problems to that of the Revenue Budget and that detailed reports would be submitted to the relevant committees following the strategic setting by the Council.  She also noted that a significant shortfall of capital allocations had been reported in November and as a result a number of reconciliations and re-profiling had been undertaken, in order to provide for a fully funded programme for 2013/14.  She stated that a shortfall was currently forecast for 2014/15 assuming that capital receipts were generated.  She also noted that the Government had yet to announce its education capital grant and therefore a number of assumptions had been made based on the previous years.  It meant that assuming the announcement was made in time for Budget Council that revised information may need to be presented to the meeting.

143.2          The Chair thanked the Director for her introduction and the information in relation to the education capital funding.

143.3          Councillor G. Theobald noted the report and stated that it offered a reasonable programme and queried what the position was in relation to the development of Patcham Court Farm, as it could be an alternative to Toads Hole Valley.  He welcomed the review of school places and suggested that it would be beneficial to work with other authorities on projects.  He expressed concern over the proposed provision for ICT as it appeared that it was not delivering results and queried when the HR system would produce the savings it had promised when a further £165k was being spent.

143.4          The Chair noted that funding for new schools was not available to the council as only third parties could apply, which meant that the council had to consider expanding schools.  In regard to the ICT spend, he suggested that it was well below the level of comparable organisations and noted that the strategy had been trimmed down.  However, there was a need to deliver better quality services which were fundamental to improving customer services.

143.5          The Director of Finance offered to provide a detailed briefing on the ICT strategy and its basic infrastructure and noted that the council’s own network was struggling to meet demand.  She also noted that the provision for the HR system was part of a planned further roll-out and would provide benefits to the organisation.

143.6          The Chair noted the comments and pointed out that the council’s desk-top computers and software had an average age of 7 years when most organisations own equipment had an average life-span of 3 years.  He believed that there was a need to invest in the ICT provision and put the recommendations to the vote.

143.7          RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND:

(1)         That the Capital Investment Programme for 2013/14 as detailed in appendix 1 to the report be approved;

(2)         That the estimated capital resources in future years as detailed in appendix 1 to the report be noted;

(3)         That the allocation of £0.250m resources in 2013/14 for the Strategic Investment Fund for the purposes set out in paragraph 3.25 of the report be approved;

(1)         That the allocation of £1.000m for the ICT fund be approved;

(2)         That the allocation of £1.000m for the Asset Management Fund be approved;

(3)         That the proposed use of council borrowing as set out in paragraph 3.17 of the report and appendix 3 to the report be approved.