Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Finance and Support

1.      The prudential indicators monitoring information attached at Annex B are noted.

2.      Cabinet is to recommend to Council that they approve revisions to the Council’s prudential indicators for 2009-10 as set out in Paragraph 2.2 (a) and (b) of Item 10 of the Cabinet Agenda.

3        The following change to the Council’s investment counterparty limits, approved by the Chief Finance Officer on 2 November 2009 is noted.

·              That the maximum period for investments with counterparties on the existing counterparty list be extended from 3 months to 12 months, provided that this is within the Sector recommended time limit for the counterparty, and that a maximum of £10m is invested in this way. The £10m maximum is in addition to £6m already placed in 2-year investments in 2008-09 and due back in June 2010. 

Councillor Clarke addressed Cabinet suggesting that greater detail might have been helpful for the breakdown of the estimated expenditure increase so that there could have been a fuller discussion.  He referred to several individual items in the report, including improvements to the Grosvenor centre car park, and recommended that matters be identified earlier so that they did not come as such a shock.

Councillor Perkins presented the report to Cabinet and explained that this was an indication of the council’s good governance arrangements. He then took Cabinet through the proposed changes to Indicators, especially highlighting the change to the maximum period for investment, which would move the council from averse to neutral risk for financial management.  It was confirmed that within the investment policy, the council was still investing in Government guaranteed British financial institutions.

Councillor B Hoare then confirmed that the changes to the indicators set out in paragraph 3.2.11 had been brought to Cabinet earlier in the year, at which time councillors would have been able to make comments. Cabinet was now being asked to recommend to Council that they accept the additional revisions.

RESOLVED

1.      That the prudential indicators monitoring information attached at Annex B are noted.

2.      That Cabinet recommend to Council that they approve revisions to the Council’s prudential indicators for 2009-10 as set below.

a.      Estimate of capital expenditure

b.      Estimate of capital financing requirement (CFR)

3        That Cabinet note the following change to the Council’s investment counterparty limits, approved by the Chief Finance Officer on 2 November 2009.

·              That the maximum period for investments with counterparties on the existing counterparty list be extended from 3 months to 12 months, provided that this is within the Sector recommended time limit for the counterparty, and that a maximum of £10m is invested in this way. The £10m maximum is in addition to £6m already placed in 2-year investments in 2008-09 and due back in June 2010.