The Head of Financial Services has submitted a report to present the Capital Strategy 2024/25 to 2027/28 for approval.

Cabinet is recommended to:

1.       Recommend to Council the approval of the Capital Strategy 2024/25 – 2027/28 attached at Appendix A.

The Head of Financial Services had submitted a report to present the Capital Strategy 2024/25 to 2027/28 for approval.

Councillor Ed Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management, highlighted that the Strategy explained how the capital programme worked and the principles which were followed.  Whilst it had been revised and updated over the years, the changes this year were minimal and mainly involved updating the Strategy to reflect new legislation.

Councillor Turner reported that the cost of capital schemes was rising substantially, and this needed to be taken into account within the Council’s processes; for example, by ensuring that there was sufficient flexibility to re-consider or value engineer schemes in the event that projected costs were too high.  There was a need to be realistic and ensure that schemes progressed appropriately through the gateway process before they were added to the capital programme.  It was also important to work to keep slippage to a minimum and avoid optimism bias around projects which might not be feasible.

Cabinet resolved to:

1.      Recommend to Council the approval of the Capital Strategy 2024/25 – 2027/28 attached at Appendix A.