Agenda item

Draft Capital Programme 2024-28

Decision:

RESOLVED

KEY DECISION

That the Executive:

a) Approved for consultation the General Fund Capital Programme 2024-28 and HRA Capital Programme 2024-28.

b) Noted the Development Pool 2024-28 and that schemes within the pool will be subject to further approval prior to inclusion in the programme.

Reason for Recommendations: To ensure that the Council complies with its Constitution and legislative requirements in setting the budget for North Northamptonshire Council for 2024-25.

Alternative Options Considered - This is the start of the formal budget consultation for the Capital Programme and any comments from the consultation will be considered as part of this process.

Minutes:

The Chair invited Cllr Hakewill to address the meeting. Cllr Hakewill made reference to the section of the report that detailed risks associated with the draft Capital Programme 2024-2028 and stated that he felt it was unreasonable to herald future delivery of plans as part of the programme only for these to remain undelivered, questioning how the Executive would deliver the draft programme given the significant underspend on capital projects to date.

The Chair then invited Cllr Lloyd Bunday, Executive Member for Finance and Transformation to introduce a report that presented the Draft General Fund Capital Programme for 2024-28, the Baseline Development Pool and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Capital Programme 2024-28. It was noted that, if approved, the programme as set out above would follow the same consultation route as the General Fund Budget before returning to Executive on 8^th February for recommendation to Full Council for approval.

In response to Cllr Hakewill’s comments, Cllr Bunday noted that a number of previous schemes had been put forward by the legacy authorities prior to unitarisation, a number of which had required reprofiling with yet other schemes being more aspirational. Cllr Bunday noted that the influence of external factors including the Covid pandemic, high inflation and global conflict had resulted in certain historic schemes no longer being viable for delivery.

Cllr Bunday reported that the Capital Programme assumed various sources of funding including capital receipts and grants supported by external and internal borrowing that was at the discretion of the Council for essential capital expenditure. The current Capital Strategy demonstrated how the Council would make expenditure and investment decisions in line with service objectives and take account of stewardship, value for money, prudence, sustainability, and affordability. It was noted that the final Capital Strategy and the Treasury Management Strategy would be presented to Full Council for approval in February.

The meeting heard that the total capital programme totalled £163.5m, consisting of the General Fund baseline programme of £104.8m and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) baseline programme of £58.7m. The Development Pool, that included schemes awaiting satisfactory business cases prior to Executive approval and inclusion within the formal programme, totalled £171.2m.

Cllr Bunday stated that the General Fund baseline programme included key projects such as highways, disabled adaptations, school improvements and extensions, and various property and environmental projects across North Northamptonshire, together with significant investment in the highway infrastructure network over and above the integrated transport grant funding.

It was noted that the HRA Baseline programme covered the Kettering and Corby housing stock, together with significant investment of £20.2m proposed for the Housing Development and New Build Programmes.

Cllr Bunday outlined the following new investments that had been put forward as part of the revised main programme from 2024-25 for approval by Council:

· £9m over the period 2024-2027 (£3m each year) funded from borrowing for investment into highway infrastructure across North Northants.

· £1.3m across 2024-25 (£164,000) and 2025-26 (£1.136m) to develop a Traveller’s Temporary Stopping Site funded from borrowing.

· £123,000 investment into play facilities at Sywell Country Park during 2024-25 funded through Capital Receipts.

· £749,300 investment into Alfred Street/Tennyson School. This had been moved from the Development Pool to the Main Programme, to be funded through DfE Basic Needs grant.

· £125,000 to support the upgrading of the public Library network, met from Capital Receipts.

It was reported that the Minimum Revenue Provision as detailed in the report reflected the minimum amount a Council must charge to the revenue budget each year to set aside a provision for repaying external borrowing. The increase in this provision of £1.735m was to ensure that the provision was aligned to our policy moving into the medium term. This would form part of the Treasury Management Strategy presented to the February 2024 Executive.

Concluding, Cllr Bunday reported that the disaggregation of the capital assets, balances and debt were still to be finalised and subject to the final certification audit of the 2020-21 financial accounts for Northamptonshire County Council and Corby Borough Council, noting this may have implications for the current assumptions.