Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2021/078

Contact: Kathy Wilcox, Head of Financial Strategy Tel: 07788 302163

Report by Director of Finance (CA7).

This report is the second monitoring report and Capital Programme update for 2021/22. Cabinet considered the first monitoring report for 2021/22 at its meeting on 20 July 2021.  This update sets out the monitoring position based on activity to the end of August 2021.  It also provides an update to the Capital Programme overview approved by Council in July 2021 taking into account additional funding and new schemes.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

a)               Agree that the following scheme should be added to the capital programme:

·                a provisional budget allocation of £1.2m towards a new Free School in Faringdon for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

b)              Approve the updated Capital Programme at Annex 2.

Recommendations agreed

Cabinet had before it the second monitoring report and Capital Programme update for 2021/22 which set out the monitoring position based on activity to the end of August 2021. It also provided an update to the Capital Programme overview approved by Council in July 2021 taking into account additional funding and new schemes.

Councillor David Bartholomew, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, drew attention to the £44m underspend in infrastructure projects which was ascribed to increased design activity.  He did not believe this was an adequate explanation and asked how the position had changed so much in the three months since the last report.

Councillor Bartholomew also noted that an underspend of £0.5 million on Climate Action seemed strange as this issue had been prioritised by the administration.  He welcomed the completion of the broadband project leaving £1.5m not required and congratulated the officers he had worked with on this project.

Councillor Duncan Enright, Cabinet Member for Travel and Development Strategy, responded that as the financial year progressed it became clearer which infrastructure projects would slip into next year as design work continued.

Councillor Tim Bearder, Cabinet Member for Highway Management, described the infrastructure programme as an impossibly massive task set up by the previous administration on a very small budget.

Councillor Calum Miller, Cabinet Member for Finance, confirmed that this administration was examining the commitments made by the previous administration with concern as they prepared the capital budget for the next financial year, due in February 2022.

Councillor Miller summarised the report as showing a reduction in predicted spending of £48.6m this year but an increase of £7.6m in the projected spend over the 10 years.  The Council was obliged to make a provision in relation to possible costs relating to the proposed Free School for Faringdon which was still under discussion.  He moved the recommendations which were seconded by Councillor Bearder.

RESOLVED to:

a)           Agree that the following scheme should be added to the capital programme:

·           a provisional budget allocation of £1.2m towards a new Free School in Faringdon for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

b)           Approve the updated Capital Programme at Annex 2.