Issue - items at meetings - Investment Strategy 2020/21

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – RESOURCES

This report is to follow.

RESOLVED: That the report entitled First Quarter Investment Strategy (Capital and Treasury) Review be noted.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

(1) That Cabinet notes the forecast expenditure of £7.822million in 2019/20 on the capital programme, paragraph 8.2 refers;

(2) That Cabinet approves the adjustments to the capital programme for 2019/20 onwards as a result of the revised timetable of schemes detailed in table 2, increasing the estimated spend in 2020/21 by £1.408million;

(3) That Cabinet notes the position of the availability of capital resources, as detailed in table 3 paragraph 8.6 and the requirement to keep the capital programme under review for affordability;

(4) Cabinet is asked to note the position of Treasury Management activity as at the end of May 2019.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: To enable the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee to consider the report entitled First Quarter Investment Strategy (Capital and Treasury) Review prior to consideration by Cabinet.

Audio Recording – 1 hour 17 minutes 58 seconds

The Service Director – Resources presented the report entitled First Quarter Investment Strategy (Capital and Treasury) Review together with the following appendices:

• Appendix A - Capital Assets as at 31 March 2019;

• Appendix B - Capital Programme Detail including Funding 2018/19 onwards;

• Appendix C - Treasury Management Update.

The following Members asked questions and took part in the debate:

• Councillor Sam North;

• Councillor Michael Weeks.

In response to a question about the riskiness of investing in other Councils, the Service Director – Resources advised that all Councils had the ability to raise Council Tax and were subject to strict controls. Most trading and commercial ventures were done through companies, which gave some protection to the Council.

In response to a further question he advised that most investments were managed in-house, although fund management was use for approximately 25 percent of investments. These were used where the rate obtained (after fees) was better than could be obtained in-house.