Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer attached

The Executive considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which presented the capital budget proposals before their submission to the Council.

The Capital Strategy had been developed to ensure that the Council could take capital expenditure and investment decisions in line with Council priorities and properly take account of stewardship, value for money, prudence, risk, sustainability and affordability.

The capital programme 2023/24 to 2025/26 comprised the continuation of the existing programme. For continuing schemes, the position was based on that set out in the report on Capital Programme Monitoring 2022/23, also being considered at this meeting (Minute Exe/23/14 above).

Details on the projects within the programme were set out in the report and the full list of the proposed projects was appended to the report.

If agreed, then the proposals contained in the report would create a capital programme of £443.8m in 2022/23, £426.8m in 2023/24, £199.7m in 2024/25 and £34.1m in 2025/26, summarised as follows:-

 The proposed funding for the programme across the forecast period was as follows:-

The proposed capital programme described within the report was affordable within the existing revenue budget based on the estimated capital financing costs associated with delivering the programme.

There were risks associated with the delivery of the capital strategy, specifically regarding delays to the programme or treasury management risks.  Measures were in place to mitigate these risks through both the Strategic Capital Board and the treasury management strategy. Reports would be provided throughout the year to Council, Executive and other relevant committees providing updates on the progress of the capital programme and the risks associated with its delivery and funding.

Decisions

The Executive:-

(1)          Approve and recommend the report to Council, including the projects for Council approval in section 6, and note that the overall budget figures may change subject to decisions made on other agenda items.

(2)          Note the capital strategy.

(3)          Note that the profile of spend is provisional, and a further update will be provided in the outturn report for 2022/23.

(4)          Delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to make alterations to the schedules for the capital programme 2022/23 to 2025/26 prior to their submission to Council for approval, subject to no changes being made to the overall estimated total cost of each individual project.