Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Finance.

The Assistant Director Finance presented the report on Capital Programme (2017/18 – 2019/20), which sought approval of the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account Capital Programmes for 2017/18 and schemes identified for the following two years.

The Assistant Director Finance provided an overview of the recommendations which required the council to prepare a three year capital expenditure plan to consider affordability of the capital investment.

He referred Members to the report and appendices and provided an overview of the General Fund Capital Programme. Members were informed of the new bids within the three year capital expenditure plan and the 2017/18 total for the new bids would be £1,204,140. The Assistant Director Finance advised of the Corporate Services Capital Programme schemes and highlighted:-

·         The conditional survey priorities would provide repair work at both the Wonford Community Centre and Civic Centre to reduce health and safety risk;

·         Ensure the customer contact platform service was online and available for customer interaction with the council;

·         Energy Saving Projects would address increased energy costs, raise income, and assess rapidly changing energy markets to reduce risk;

·         Capitalised Staff Costs to engineers and surveyors for construction and purchase of assets;

·         Contributions to Strata led projects for 2017/18, which included the annual contribution of £53,900.

Members were updated on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for 2017/18. The HRA would provide the capital programme with £18.902 million pounds which would be comprised of improvements to existing council property, new council homes and new IT systems. The Assistant Director Finance referred Members to the HRA Capital Programme report to show where funding would come from.

In response to Members’ questions, the Assistant Director Finance responded:

·         The RAMM Air monitoring equipment was not a part of the previous re-development;

·         The percentage for vehicle acquisition each year for the Capital Programme would be monitored. Finance would compare the cost of vehicle purchase against vehicle lease.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee noted the Capital Programme (2017/18 – 2019/20) report and requested Executive and Council note and approve:-

(1)  The General Fund capital programme for 2017/18 as set out in Appendix 3;

and

(2)  The HRA capital programme for 2017/18 as set out in Appendix 4.