Issue - meetings

To receive a report on Cabinet recommendations referred to Council in relation to the Treasury Management Mid-Year Report 2021/22.

The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Governance, Finance and Resources

(a)  submitted the Treasury Management Mid-Year Report which was a requirement of the Council's reporting procedures and provided a summary of the Treasury activities to the end of September 2021. The report also covered the actual position to date on the Prudential Indicators in accordance with the Prudential Code. The report met the requirements of both the CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management and the CIPFA Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities. The Council was required to comply with both codes through Regulations issued under the Local Government Act 2003;

(b)  gave a brief introduction to the report and made the following points:

·       The key messages in this report were set out in the tables at paragraph 5.1 of the report and these showed that the capital expenditure forecast had been revised and was now expected to be £6.305m, an increase of £1.4m compared to the original forecast

·       In the table at paragraph 4.0, no additional borrowing had been needed nor was expected in this financial year

·       The capital financing at 30 September remained at £31.550m which was unchanged from the figure at 1 April which was well within the Council’s operating boundary of £36.479m and authorised limit of £46m

·       Whilst it continued to be a very challenging time for Treasury Management activities, with Brexit and then COVID impacting on investment returns worldwide and the UK bank rate, which remained unchanged at 0.10%, the team had been successful in achieving returns of 0.30% which was considerably above our benchmark level (0.17%). He was pleased to report that because of that, the Council was now forecasting a return of £196k which was around 10% more than originally forecast or budgeted for and was a great achievement by the team

(c)   presented the Cabinet’s recommendations to the Council.

RESOLVED

Council:

(1)  NOTED the mid-year position on treasury activity for 2021/22, as shown at Appendix 1 of the report;

(2)  APPROVED the mid-year position on the prudential indicators for 2021/22, as shown at Appendix 1 of the report.

(Unanimous)