Agenda item

To update the Council’s Strategy for flexible use of capital receipts taking into account actual receipts in 2016/17 and 2017/18 and the actual and forecast costs of projects planned to be funded from capital receipts.

 The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 13) which updated the Council’s Strategy for flexible use of capital receipts taking into account actual receipts in 2016/17 and 2017/18 and the actual and forecast costs of projects planned to be funded from capital receipts.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Anthony Chadley and seconded by Councillor Jason Collis.

That the Council:

(1)  “agrees that £3.06m of spend on activities and projects to transform Council services set out in this report should be funded from the total capital receipts available for this purpose;

(2)  agrees that the balance of £561,000 available capital receipts be transferred to the Council’s Transformation Reserve to be allocated to future eligible projects by Budget Board.”

Councillor Anthony Chadley in introducing the report reminded Members that as part of the 2015 Local Government Spending Review, the Government provided Councils with the flexibility to use Capital Receipts received in the financial years 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 to fund transformation and restructuring of services in order to achieve efficiencies and revenue cost savings. The 2018/19 settlement extended this flexibility for a further three years to 2021/22.

Councillor Chadley explained that capital receipts of £3.62m were available from the sale in 2016/17 and 2017/18 of Council assets. To date £3.06m of this sum had been spent or committed to date on projects to help transform Council services in order to achieve revenue savings. The details were set out on page 50 of the paperwork. It was proposed that the remaining £561k be transferred to the Transformation Fund to fund additional transformation projects, subject to approval by Budget Board.

Councillor Chadley reminded Members about the comments he had made at the March Council meeting where he stated that ‘The Council’s Transformation Fund was used wisely and was not to be used to offer sweeteners to residents. The Council would not make promises that appeared to offer a better result for residents but in the long term would leave them worse off. The Council would continue to investigate how it could generate new income, i.e. new money to pay for real costs. Every pound, every penny of the Transformation Fund would be used wisely with the aim of multiplying the pot, not throwing it away on short term, ill thought out ‘vote winners.’’

Councillor Jason Collis thanked Councillor Chadley for his stewardship of the Council’s financial affairs.

Councillor Lee Dillon commented that he supported transferring the balance to the Transformation Fund but that the balance would now stand at £1.1m. He felt that some of this funding should be spent on issues that affected residents and should not be seen as political giveaways. At the March Council meeting he had proposed using some of the Transformation Fund to reduce the payments for residents for the green waste collection from £50 to £25 per annum which would benefit residents.

Councillor James Fredrickson stated that the £3m had been used to protect front line services. The Administration’s proposals provided a pragmatic and effective solution to provide services that the residents relied on the most.

Councillor Chadley thanked Councillor Dillon for his support to transferring the balance of the capital receipts into the Transformation Fund. He reassured everyone that the funding would be used to deliver real transformation.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.