Issue - meetings

The Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Corporate Resources that advised that the CIPFA Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities (the Code) was introduced following the Local Government Act 2003; that the Code detailed a number of measures/limits/ parameters (Prudential Indicators) that were required to be set each financial year; and that the approval of these limits would provide a benchmark to measure actual performance against, to help ensure that the Council complied with relevant legislation, was acting prudently and that its capital expenditure proposals were affordable.

The report also advised that the Council was required to approve Prudential Indicators for the following items:

These indicators were detailed in the report and summarised at Annex A to the report.

The report also indicated that a major change introduced under the 2017 Prudential Code was the requirement to determine a Capital Strategy; that  CIPFA had recognised however, that due to the timing of the release of the revised codes (December 2017), that it would not be practicable to formulate these documents within the 2018/19 planning process; that the Capital Strategy therefore would be introduced during the 2019/20 reporting cycle; and that the Capital Strategy would set out the long-term context in which capital expenditure and investment decisions were made and gave due consideration to both risk and reward and impact on the achievement of outcomes.

DECISION MADE: That the Cabinet:

(1)            approve the Prudential Indicators (as detailed in the report) as the basis for compliance with The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities;

(2)            agree that relevant Prudential Indicators should be revised as required and that any changes required will be brought to cabinet and Council for approval;

(3)            agree  that estimates of capital expenditure may change as grant allocations are received; and

(4)            delegate authority to the Head of Corporate Resources in conjunction with the Cabinet Member – Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Services to manage the Authorised Limit and Operational Boundary for external debt as detailed in Section 5 of the report.