The Head of Financial Services and the Head of Business Improvement have submitted a report to Cabinet on 16 March which seeks approval of a project into the capital programme.

The Cabinet decision will be reported in the Briefing Note. The draft minutes of the meeting will be available on the Cabinet meetings webpage.

Councillor Brown, the Leader of the Council, will propose Cabinet’s recommendation.

Recommendation: Cabinet recommends subject to decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting on 16 March 2022 that Council resolves to approve the addition of £0.110 million into the Capital Programme for the purchase of Hybrid AV meeting equipment as set out at paragraph 13.

Council considered the report from the Head of Financial Services and the Head of Business Improvement seeking approval of a project into the capital programme.

Councillor Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management introduced the report, proposed the recommendation and answered questions.  Cllrs Rowley and Thomas spoke in support of the item and the recommendations were agreed on being seconded by Cllr Brown and put to the vote.

Council resolved to:

approve the addition of £0.110 million into the Capital Programme for the purchase of Hybrid AV meeting equipment as set out at paragraph 13.

The Head of Financial Services and the Head of Business Improvement have submitted a report to update the Cabinet on Finance, Risk and Corporate Performance matters as at 31 December 2021.

Cabinet is recommended to:

1.      Note the projected financial outturn as well as theposition on risk and performance as at 31 December 2021;

2.      Recommend to Council the addition of £0.110 million into the Capital Programme for the purchase of Hybrid AV meeting equipment, as set out at paragraph 13 of the report.

The Head of Financial Services and the Head of Business Improvement had submitted a report to update the Cabinet on Finance, Risk and Corporate Performance matters as at 31 December 2021.

The report also included a recommendation in respect of a capital allocation for the purchase of hybrid audio-visual equipment.

The Head of Financial Services highlighted the key points of the report.  It was noted that a slight adverse variance of £305,000 for the general fund at the end of the year, after making planned contributions from reserves of just over £5m, was forecast.  Reasons for the adverse variances were included in the report.  Favourable variances were shown in Community Services and Housing, including a grant of £500,000 relating to homelessness expenditure.  The Housing Revenue Account was on track to achieve a surplus position of £388k as forecast at the start of the year.  There had been further slippages on the capital programme of around £17m, which were largely in relation to the housing delivery programme.  There remained three red risks on the Corporate Risk Register, and three red corporate performance indicators.

A Cabinet Member commented that there was a difference between capital schemes which involved the Council undertaking developments (either by itself or through a third party), and those which involved funding for schemes and involved borrowing (e.g. acquisition of properties by the HRA).  It was requested that additional detail on the split between these be provided in future reports.

It was noted that there remained a number of adverse factors which continued to affect the budget and the successful delivery of projects, including the ongoing impact of Brexit, effects of Covid on both workforce and supply chain, and the situation in Ukraine.

Cabinet resolved to:

1.        Note the projected financial outturn as well as the position in risk and performance as at 31 December 2021;

2.        Recommend to Council the addition of £0.110 million into the Capital Programme for the purchase of hybrid AV meeting equipment as set out in paragraph 13 of the report.