Issue - meetings

The medium-term financial plan (MTFP) includes a £50 million futures fund to be illustratively drawn down in tranches of £10 million per annum over five years in support of key infrastructure developments.

As the MTFP is an iterative process the intention would be to update the annual base budget to reflect the flexible nature of the fund if the spending profile adopts a different profile to that originally assumed.

This report sets out the proposed governance arrangements for the fund. 

RESOLVED that the governance arrangements for the futures fund as set out in the report be approved.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Leader

Reason

Governance arrangements are required to ensure decisions are made transparently and in accordance with the council’s priorities.

ea

The Leader of the Council presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'L' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Cabinet was informed that the medium-term financial plan (MTFP) included a £50 million futures fund to be illustratively drawn down in tranches of £10 million per annum over five years in support of key infrastructure developments.

Further to this Cabinet was advised that as the MTFP is an iterative process the intention would be to update the annual base budget to reflect the flexible nature of the fund if the spending profile adopts a different profile to that originally assumed.

Cabinet was informed that this report set out the proposed governance arrangements for the fund. 

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board questioned whether there would be any change to the governance board following discussions at the recent Overview and Scrutiny Board, in relation to this the Leader advised that there haven’t been any changes made as there wasn’t a clear decision at the recent Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting but that he would take this matter up for discussion with the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board outside of the Cabinet meeting.

RESOLVED that the governance arrangements for the futures fund as set out in the report be approved.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Leader of the Council

To consider the following Transformation and Finance related Cabinet reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 14 April 2021:

·       Futures Fund Governance

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Drew Mellor, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Finance.

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Futures Fund Governance - The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Finance presented a report, a copy of which was circulated to Board members and which appears as Appendix 'D' to these minutes in the Minute Book. The issues raised in the subsequent discussion on this paper included:

• The criteria for how the Programme Board would decide spending. There would be an opportunity for scrutiny for any spending decisions over the appropriate thresholds. The Section 151 officer advised that the Council had to adhere to the prudential code for borrowing for local authorities. There was ongoing work to look at the appropriate level of debt for a local authority of BCP’s size.
• The paper included a loose definition of infrastructure and did not seem to relate to previous information provided on the Futures Fund regarding big ticket projects.

·     A Councillor proposed that a quarterly update be published on activity of the Futures Fund in In order to keep everyone updated on the activity of the Board.

·     The Leader noted that issues coming forward would most likely be items over £500k but even lower cost items may be considered by Cabinet or an all member seminar. The Leader wanted to be transparent in this process.

·     The drawdown of £10m – it was confirmed that this would only be drawn down when assuming will not be sat in the bank. The Chief Financial Officer advised that he Fund would only draw down the money only when business case was signed-off. The figure outlined was illustrative to show the potential impact on the MTFP.

·     Clarification on where funding would come from to pay back costs and interest as not all of the items were revenue generating. It was noted that the repayment figures were based on a 50-year period. The interest amounts had been factored into the MTFP. The Leader commented that low interest meant that it was a good time to invest.

·     Criteria for investment. The business case needed to add up – including costs, level of contingency, associated risks, details and achieving external grant, inward investment or income.

The main areas of focus would be regeneration projects with viability issues, public realm enhancements and infrastructure pieces around these issues.