Issue - meetings

[To approve the Treasury Management - Annual Report 2021-2022 and Activity Monitoring Quarter One 2022-2023]

1.    That it be noted, the Council operated within the overall approved Prudential and Treasury Management Indicators, and also with the requirements set out in the Council’s Treasury Management Policy Statement during 2021-2022.

2.    That it be noted, revenue underspends of £1.0 million for the General Fund and £738,000 for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) were generated from treasury management activities in 2021-2022.

3.    That it be noted, the General Fund and HRA treasury management activities for 2022-2023 were currently forecast to be within budget. This would continue to be monitored, and updates would be provided in future reports.

The Cabinet Member for Resources and Digital City, Councillor Obaida Ahmed, presented a report on Treasury Management - Annual Report 2021-2022 and Activity Monitoring Quarter One 2022-2023.

The report sets out the results of treasury management activities carried out in 2021- 2022, together with performance against the Prudential Indicators previously approved by Council. It also provides a monitoring and progress report on treasury management activity for the first quarter of 2022-2023, in line with the Prudential Indicators approved by Council in March 2022.

The Cabinet Member for Resources and Digital City, Councillor Obaida Ahmed proposed the recommendations and the Leader of the Council, Councillor Ian Brookfield seconded the recommendations.

The report was debated by Council. Councillor Obaida Ahmed replied to the debate.

Resolved:

1. That it be noted, the Council operated within the overall approved Prudential and Treasury Management Indicators, and also with the requirements set out in the Council’s Treasury Management Policy Statement during 2021-2022.
2. That it be noted, revenue underspends of £1.0 million for the General Fund and £738,000 for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) were generated from treasury management activities in 2021-2022.
3. That it be noted, the General Fund and HRA treasury management activities for 2022-2023 were currently forecast to be within budget. This would continue to be monitored, and updates would be provided in future reports.

[To approve the Treasury Management - Annual Report 2021-2022 and Activity Monitoring Quarter One 2022-2023]

That Council be asked to note:

1.    The Council operated within the overall approved Prudential and Treasury Management Indicators, and also within the requirements set out in the Council’s Treasury Management Policy Statement during 2021-2022.

2.    That revenue underspends of £1.0 million for the General Fund and £738,000 for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) were generated from treasury management activities in 2021-2022.

3.    That the General Fund and HRA treasury management activities for 2022-2023 are currently forecast to be within budget.  This would  continue to be monitored, and updates provided in future reports.

That Cabinet notes:

1.    The financial information included in this report is based on the ‘Capital Budget Outturn 2021-2022 including Quarter One Capital Monitoring 2022-2023’ report also on the agenda for this meeting.  The capital report is subject to two reports being separately approved by Cabinet (Resources) Panel on 6 July 2022.  Therefore, if this approval is not obtained, a revised version of this report would be presented to Council on 20 July 2022.

2.    The Council’s external borrowing has remained unchanged from 2020-2021 as there were no repayments of loans due in 2021-2022 and no new loans were taken out during the financial year.

3.    That CIPFA have recently consulted on temporary proposals to update the CIPFA code of practice on Local Authority Accounting for infrastructure assets.  At the time of writing, the outcome of the consultation has not been published.  However, in response to the issues being considered by CIPFA, the Council is currently reviewing its accounting policy and would be discussing the findings with the Council’s external auditors.  This may result in additional charges being made on Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) for the General Fund for 2021-2022 onwards.  Once this work has been concluded, an update would be reported to Cabinet.

Councillor Obaida Ahmed presented the Treasury Management report for recommendation to Full Council for approval.   The report set out the results of treasury management activities carried out in 2021-2022, together with performance against the Prudential Indicators previously approved by Council.  Councillor Ahmed reported that key messages from the report were  that as a council we had operated within our overall approved prudential and treasury management indicators during 2021-2022 and had built up a strong track record of managing the Council’s finances well.  In order to reduce interest payment costs the Council’s strategy was to only undertake external borrowing when our cash flows required and the Council had not undertaken any new external borrowing since March 2019. External borrowing remained at £720.4 million which was well within the Council’s limit.

Resolved:

That Council be asked to note:

1.    The Council operated within the overall approved Prudential and Treasury Management Indicators, and also within the requirements set out in the Council’s Treasury Management Policy Statement during 2021-2022.

2.    That revenue underspends of £1.0 million for the General Fund and £738,000 for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) were generated from treasury management activities in 2021-2022.

3.    That the General Fund and HRA treasury management activities for 2022-2023 are currently forecast to be within budget.  This would  continue to be monitored, and updates provided in future reports.

That Cabinet notes:

1.    The financial information included in this report is based on the ‘Capital Budget Outturn 2021-2022 including Quarter One Capital Monitoring 2022-2023’ report also on the agenda for this meeting.  The capital report is subject to two reports being separately approved by Cabinet (Resources) Panel on 6 July 2022.  Therefore, if this approval is not obtained, a revised version of this report would be presented to Council on 20 July 2022.

2.    The Council’s external borrowing has remained unchanged from 2020-2021 as there were no repayments of loans due in 2021-2022 and no new loans were taken out during the financial year.

3.    That CIPFA have recently consulted on temporary proposals to update the CIPFA code of practice on Local Authority Accounting for infrastructure assets.  At the time of writing, the outcome of the consultation has not been published.  However, in response to the issues being considered by CIPFA, the Council is currently reviewing its accounting policy and would be discussing the findings with the Council’s external auditors.  This may result in additional charges being made on Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) for the General Fund for 2021-2022 onwards.  Once this work has been concluded, an update would be reported to Cabinet.