Report of the City Treasurer

This report provides an update on the budgets for the City Council’s major capital projects.

The Committee considered a report of the City Treasurer, which provided details on the budgets for the Council’s major capital projects.

Officers referred to the main points and themes with the report which included:-

·                The Council’s capital programme currently totalled £1,475.6m for the period 2018/19 to 2023/24;

·                Large capital projects tended to be complex in nature, and any project which created a long term asset required long term planning, as such projects may need to be agreed before there was cost certainty, and with a degree of risk accepted;

·                If projects required a budget amendment once the project had begun, approval by the Executive or Full Council was required; and

·                Details for each directorate’s major projects (£10m plus), including their original budget compared to their current budget with the rationale for any difference, as well as the current total spend as at the end of September 2018.

The Chair informed Members that projects that sat within Highways Maintenance, ICT and HRA Housing programmes were intended to be subject to future reports to this committee.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

·                Was it possible to have an update on the Highways budget spend on footpaths and gully cleansing;

·                How was the Council intending on ensuing it would spend all of the Highways budget for 2019/20 given this years underspend;

·                There was concern that money for the Manchester Football Hubs project which was agreed as part of the 2016/17 budget had not yet been spent and how long was intended to be held for;

·                Why had only £400,000of the £21.3million budget for the Parks Improvement Plan been spent to date;

·                It was suggested that the Committee received a future report on the progress of spend against the Northern Gateway and Eastern Gateway Programmes;

·                Why had the costs of the Civic Quarter Heat Network project almost doubled from £14million to £26million and how confident was the Council that the cost would not increase further given that the project had yet to commence;

·                Clarification was sought as to whether the cost of the redevelopment of St Peter’s Square had overspent form its original budget;

·                Why was the regeneration project at Ben Street underspent;

The Deputy Chief Executive explained that the funding for the Manchester Football Hubs project had not yet been spent as the Football Association scheme had changed and the Council was currently working with the Association as to how the project could be delivered.  It was explained that if it became clear that the project could not be delivered, the funding would be reviewed to see if there was scope for the project to be delivered using other resources or allocated elsewhere.  In terms of the Parks Improvement Plan, it was reported a new Parks strategy had been agreed earlier in the year which required a feasibility plan to be undertaken to determine how and where best to invest the allocated funding in order to maximise opportunities to secure additional funding.  The Deputy Chief Executive acknowledged the comments by Members that progress with implementing the Improvement Plan had been slow and advised that the work would commence in January 2019 with implementation planned for Spring 2019, which would progress at pace.  The Chair suggested that the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee received the Improvement Plan in draft for Scrutiny Members to comment on the proposals before they were implemented.

The Strategic Director (Development) advised that the detail of the increase in the Civic Quarter Heat Network project would be included in its Business Plan which would be subject to scrutiny at a future meeting.  He assured the Committee that the Executive had received regular reports on the project over the last four to five years which contained details as to the increases in the budget of the project.  The Committee was advised that the redevelopment of St Peters Square was not overspent as it had formed part of the budget for the redevelopment of the Town Hall Extension complex, which was a total £155million.

The Strategic Director (Development) offered to provide Committee Members with details as to the underspend on the regeneration project at Ben Street as an item for information in a future Overview report.

Decision

The Committee:-

(1)       Notes the report;

(2)       Recommends that the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee receive the proposed Parks Improvement  Plan in draft to enable the proposals to be scrutinised before they are implemented;

(3)       Requests a future report on the progress of spend against the Northern Gateway and Eastern Gateway programmes;

(4)       Requests a future report on the Highways budget including spend on footpaths and gullies;

(5)       Agrees that when it considers a future report on the Civic Quarter Heat Network Business Plan, the report will contain details on why the budget for the project has increased;

(6)       Requests that as part of a follow up report, details of the underspend of the regeneration project at Ben Street are included.