Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2022/015

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

Report by Director of Finance (CA9).

Financial Report on capital spending against budget allocations, including any necessary capital programme approvals.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

Re-profiling

a)                  Agree the re-profiling of HIF1, HIF2, A40 and the Banbury & Bicester  programmes (paragraphs 19,20)

Grant funding

b)                  Agree the inclusion in the Capital Programme of the following grant funding updates and allocation:

·             High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for 2022/23 and 2023/24 of £15.7m to the basic need programme to address SEN provision (Paragraph 61),

·             £2.2m Sustainable Warmth Fund for Home Upgrade grant (Paragraph 70),

·             Highways Structural Maintenance Programme between 2022/23 and 2024/25 of £25.2m towards the annual maintenance programmes (Paragraph 65)

Capital Programme Governance and prioritisation

c)                  Endorse the changes to Capital Programme governance, noting the enhanced role of Cabinet and rollout of changes to strengthen internal structures and procedures. (paragraph 78 and annex 3, structure chart).

d)                  Agree to a full review of the Capital Programme, in light of pressures and rising inflation costs (paragraph 80)

e)                  Agree that the Housing & Growth Deal should be reported at project level rather than programme level, as set out in paragraph 32.

f)                    Endorse the latest capital monitoring position for 2022/23 set out in Annex 1, noting the return of £1.7m corporate funds from the Defect Liability Programme.

g)                  Approve the updated Capital Programme at Annex 2 incorporating the changes set out in this report.

Cabinet considered a report recommending reprofiling of major infrastructure projects, allocations of grant funding and a full review of the Capital Programme in light of pressures and increasing inflation costs.

Councillor Calum Miller, Cabinet Member for Finance, introduced the report.  The reprofiling of infrastructure projects was necessary following some delays in land purchase and design.  £50m of capital expenditure will be moved to the following financial year as a result.  Measures were being taken to ensure that the Council lived within its means in what will be a very challenging period.

Before considering the report, the Chair had agreed to hear the following speakers:

City Councillor Katherine Miles, Summertown Ward, criticised the recommendation in the review of Homes from Infrastructure Programme to remove further funding from the Woodstock Road and Banbury Road corridor improvements and re-allocate the remaining funding from these schemes to other schemes.  These improvements were much needed especially given the new development at Oxford North.

Robin Tucker, Co-chair of the Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel, called on Cabinet to ask central government to re-think HIF1 (Housing Infrastructure Fund) given that the Department for Transport’s Decarbonising Transport strategy, the strategy of EEH, our sub-national transport body, and our own LTCP all require a reduction in motor traffic, and the Committee on Climate Change tells us that more action is needed on modal shift.

Cabinet Members responded that the HIF1 scheme was constantly under review to make it better for active travel.  The recommendation on the Woodstock and Banbury Road schemes had not been accepted yet.  They were still a high priority but will have to be consistent with the Central Oxford Transport Strategy and funding could come from somewhere other than the Growth Deal.

Cabinet Members acknowledged that there was increasing difficulty in funding projects with current inflation rates.  Other sectors such as children’s social care and SEN needed capital investment too as well as climate adaptation projects.  The Capital Projects Board was in place to evaluate the projects equitably.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Miller, seconded by Cllr Gant and agreed.

RESOLVED to:

Re-profiling

a)                  Agree the re-profiling of HIF1, HIF2, A40 and the Banbury & Bicester  programmes (paragraphs 19,20)

Grant funding

b)                  Agree the inclusion in the Capital Programme of the following grant funding updates and allocation:

·                     High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for 2022/23 and 2023/24 of £15.7m to the basic need programme to address SEN provision (Paragraph 61),

·                     £2.2m Sustainable Warmth Fund for Home Upgrade grant (Paragraph 70),

·                     Highways Structural Maintenance Programme between 2022/23 and 2024/25 of £25.2m towards the annual maintenance programmes (Paragraph 65)

Capital Programme Governance and prioritisation

c)                  Endorse the changes to Capital Programme governance, noting the enhanced role of Cabinet and rollout of changes to strengthen internal structures and procedures. (paragraph 78 and annex 3, structure chart).

d)                  Agree to a full review of the Capital Programme, in light of pressures and rising inflation costs (paragraph 80)

e)                  Agree that the Housing & Growth Deal should be reported at project level rather than programme level, as set out in paragraph 32.

f)                    Endorse the latest capital monitoring position for 2022/23 set out in Annex 1, noting the return of £1.7m corporate funds from the Defect Liability Programme.

g)                  Approve the updated Capital Programme at Annex 2 incorporating the changes set out in this report.