The Scrutiny Officer has submitted a report which details recommendations from the Scrutiny Committee on the Capital Strategy

Scrutiny Committee Recommendations to the City Executive Board

We recommend that the City Executive Board approve the Capital Strategy subject to the following suggestions:

a) To enable more accurate and consistent ratings, Key Outcomes in the Capital Project Scoring Guidance should be more clearly defined and explicitly aligned to the Council’s corporate objectives (Appendix B).

b) The Project Delivery Process and the Gateway Process should be better integrated and provide similar levels of detail at each stage (Appendix F, pages 1 and 2).

c) A member briefing on the capital process should be offered to all City Councillors.

d) The City Council should look to improve its project management function by exploring what can be learnt from Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) guidance and from partners who do project management successfully, such as the University of Oxford.

The Scrutiny Officer submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed recommendations from the Scrutiny Committee on the Capital Strategy.

Cllr Simmons, Chair of Scrutiny Committee presented the report and thanked the Head of Finance for his assistance.  He drew attention to some internal inconsistencies in the detailed guidance documentation; the Head of Finance agreed to revise these before publication.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

APPROVE the Capital Strategy subject to the following suggestions:

a) To enable more accurate and consistent ratings, Key Outcomes in the Capital Project Scoring Guidance should be more clearly defined and explicitly aligned to the Council’s corporate objectives (Appendix B).

b) The Project Delivery Process and the Gateway Process should be better integrated and provide similar levels of detail at each stage (Appendix F, pages 1 and 2).

c) A member briefing on the capital process should be offered to all City Councillors.

d) The City Council should look to improve its project management function by exploring what can be learnt from Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) guidance and from partners who do project management successfully, such as the University of Oxford.

Cllr Price thanked Cllr Simmons for his service as Chair of the Scrutiny Committee, observing that the quality of the reports had made the work of the City Executive Board much easier.  The City Executive Board noted that the feedback from the scrutiny survey had been overwhelmingly positive.

The Head of Finance has submitted a report which details the Capital Strategy.

Officer Recommendation: That the City Executive Board approves the Capital Strategy attached at Appendix A.

Cllr Turner left the meeting at 6pm.

The Head of Finance submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the Capital Strategy and set out proposed revisions to the Council’s approach to capital investment and the rules and processes against which the capital schemes are prepared, evaluated and monitored.

Cllr Ed Turner, Board Member for Finance, Asset Management and Public Health presented the report.  He emphasised the importance of following appropriate governance procedures in the future given that the Council had a very large capital expenditure programme to deliver in challenging market conditions.

The City Executive Board resolved to APPROVE the Capital Strategy attached at Appendix A, subject to the Head of Finance revising the documents in line with the comments from the Scrutiny Committee (refer minute 182d).

For the Panel to pre-scrutinise the Capital Strategy, which is going to CEB for approval on 14 May.