A report by the Interim Director of Finance provided the Cabinet with Capital Programme bids for 2013/16 for its consideration and referral to the Council for approval.  It also included the related capital financing requirements based upon the prudential indicators that inform the Treasury Management Strategy.

The report referred to schemes carried forward into 2013/16 from the current 2012/13 Capital Programme, as detailed in the Capital Programme Monitoring Report for Period 8 which was considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 24 January 2013 (Minute No. 164 refers).

The Cabinet noted that the size and shape of the Capital Programme would be dictated by the Government’s announcements on supported programmes and, affordability.  The Council’s 2013/16 revenue budgets would severely limit the scope for unsupported capital expenditure (that generated revenue costs) to schemes that generated immediate revenue savings.

The Cabinet also noted that Capital Receipts would be consumed by Redundancy and Equal Pay costs and, initially, would be unavailable to support the Capital Programme, as had been the case in the past.  As new capital receipts were generated, schemes that were held up could be released.

Schemes that would otherwise proceed, but could not, due to a shortage of revenue funds and Capital receipts, were corralled into a section for release when revenue funding or/and Capital receipts, became available.  The guiding thought was that such schemes would be delayed for at least a year.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the 2013-16 Capital Programme, set out in the report in Table 4 and detailed in Annex 8 to the report be agreed and referred to Council for approval;

(2)  ‘spend to save’ and ‘schemes to generate capital receipts’ be reviewed in detail, prior to being specifically approved by the Cabinet for implementation;

(3)  the capital financing requirements be reflected in the projected revenue budget and the 2013/16 Medium Term Financial Strategy; and

(4)  the Prudential Indicators be noted and reported to the Cabinet as part of the Treasury Management Strategy.