Agenda item

Report attached.

The Cabinet considered a report of Councillor Joyce Plummer, Portfolio Holder for Resources, informing Members of the progress of the 2022/23 Capital Programme.

Councillor Plummer indicated that the Council had approved its Capital Programme for 2022/23 at its meeting on the 24^th February 2022.  The total value of the capital expenditure authorised in the budget in February 2022 had been £38.594m and this had been increased to £45.132m with carry forward projects from the previous year and new in-year authorisations.  The current predicted spend against Budget was £7.27m with £37.886m to be slipped into 2023/2024 leaving a small overspend of £23,800 in year that it was hoped would be funded from an additional grant claim.

The Leader commented that the programme of some £45m was significantly more than the usual £1m amount set aside annually.  However, the reason for this was the availability of grants to fund some major projects.  As mentioned earlier in the meeting, additional grants were anticipated in 2023/24 in respect of the Huncoat Garden Village (£30m), Heritage Lottery Funding (£5m) and funding from a cultural organisation based in Yorkshire (£5m).

Councillor Britcliffe asked if there was a backlog in delivering Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) projects to enable vulnerable people to remain in their own homes.  Mark Hoyle, Head of Regeneration and Housing, responded that there was no longer any backlog, but there was an active waiting-list which was being worked through.  Councillor Dad noted that around £1m DFG money remained unspent and he asked if the Council could improve uptake.  Mr Hoyle acknowledge the importance of supporting those in need, but this was a demand led service.  Currently, no one was missing out on funding or waiting too long for access.  The Council regularly reached out to those who might use the service and swiftly processed any requests received.

Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

The Council had authorised a capital programme of £38.594m at its meeting on the 24^th February 2022 and the programme had subsequently been increased to £45.132m upon the authorisation of the carry forward of projects from the previous year and a variety of in-year authorisations using existing internal funds or new external funding.  The programme had been largely funded from existing resources with the exception an approval of £5m of borrowing (if required).

Spend to date had been £2.498m which was equivalent to 34.4% of the final forecast spend in year.  There were 47 individual projects underway across the Council at this time.  In addition to the actual spend to date, there was a further £4.886m forecast to be spent in year.

The forecast total spend against all the capital projects was now £7.270m, with an estimated £37.862m of spend to be slipped into the next financial year. The forecast slippage included £35m relating to the Accrington Town Centre Levelling Up Project and the Leisure Estate Investment Project.

There were 3 projects that were indicating a negative variance at this moment in time and the overall additional costs from these 3 projects was expected to be less than £48,000. There were some predicted savings on other projects that would offset any overspend which reduced the overall forecast overspend to around £23,800.  It was anticipated that additional external funding could be claimed or costs reduced to eradicate any overspend in year.

The significant elements of the programme were as follows,

The detail of individual project budgets and expected costs to complete the projects was provided as an Appendix to the report.

There were no alternative options for consideration or reasons

Resolved                                 -      That Cabinet notes the progress on capital expenditure to date.