Cabinet:

1.              Approved the capital strategy contained within this report noting its impact on both the capital programme and overall contribution to the setting of the revenue budget for 2019/20 and beyond

2.              Will Recommend to Council for consideration and approval the 2019/20 and ongoing Capital Programme (subject to business cases for the regeneration schemes being approved in line with the governance process)

3.              Agreed that the Chief Financial Officer be authorised to allocate funding from the Capital Contingency included within the draft Capital Programme.

4.              Approved the use of capital receipts to fund the revenue costs of two eligible proposals – the Oracle and CRM system transformations – under the MHCLG Guidance on the Flexible Use of Capital Receipts.

5.              Agreed that externally funded schemes can be added to the capital programme up to £500k as and when funding is confirmed. Any external funding over £500k will be subject to approval by the Chief Financial (s151) Officer.

6.              Agreed that the relevant Cabinet Member, together with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Property be delegated authority to commence tender processes and accept tenders for capital schemes included within the approved programme under the block programme allocations or delegation arrangements set out in this report.

7.              Noted the capital prudential indicators included within the capital strategy when approving the capital programme to ensure affordability.

Councillor Damian White, Leader of the Council presented the report to Council detailing the Council’s Capital Strategy and the associated Capital Programme for Cabinet to approve and to recommend on further to full Council.  The Council is required to approve the Capital Strategy as per the Prudential Code for capital finance in Local Authorities.  The report presented is an overarching report and should be read in conjunction with the other reports on the full Cabinet agenda which go into greater detail.

The key elements of the report are:

1.     Capital Strategy – an overview linking the Capital Programme to the Corporate Plan and the four objectives of the Council.  It also sets out the governance process in establishing the Capital programme.

2.     The proposed GF Capital Programme – Existing Capital Programme which has already had Member approval and is set out in detail in Appendix 1 of the report.

·       New Capital Bids

·       Regeneration Programme which is based on the revised individual business cases

·       Associated Prudential Indicators as a result of the proposed Capital programme

3.     Investments in the regeneration Programme –

·       Overview of the proposals

·       Risk Management and mitigation

4.     Knowledge and skills

·       Setting out the Authority’s approach on using internal staff as well as the use of external advisers and consultants

Cabinet:

1.              Approved the Capital Strategy contained within this report noting its impact on both the capital programme and overall contribution to the setting of the revenue budget for 2019/20 and beyond

2.              Will Recommend to Council for consideration and approval the 2019/20 and ongoing Capital Programme (subject to business cases for the regeneration schemes being approved in line with the governance process)

3.              Agreed that the Chief Financial Officer be authorised to allocate funding from the Capital Contingency included within the draft Capital Programme.

4.              Approved the use of capital receipts to fund the revenue costs of two eligible proposals – the Oracle and CRM system transformations – under the MHCLG Guidance on the Flexible Use of Capital Receipts.

5.              Agreed that externally funded schemes can be added to the capital programme up to £500k as and when funding is confirmed. Any external funding over £500k will be subject to approval by the Chief Financial (s151) Officer.

6.              Agreed that the relevant Cabinet Member, together with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Property be delegated authority to commence tender processes and accept tenders for capital schemes included within the approved programme under the block programme allocations or delegation arrangements set out in this report.

7.              Noted the capital prudential indicators included within the capital strategy when approving the capital programme to ensure affordability.