Issue - meetings

Treasury Management Outturn Report

Meeting: 17/09/2020 - Cabinet (Item 676)

676 Annual Treasury Management Review 2019-20 pdf icon PDF 547 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a summary of the treasury management activity and prudential/treasury indicators for 2019-20. However, the council’s 2019-20 accounts had not yet been audited and hence the figures in the report were subject to change. The meeting was advised that the council was required to operate a balanced budget, which broadly meant that cash raised during the year would meet cash expenditure.

 

Part of the treasury management operation was to ensure that this cash flow was adequately planned, with cash being available when it was needed. Surplus monies were invested in low risk counterparties or instruments commensurate with the council’s low risk appetite, providing adequate liquidity initially before considering investment return.

 

The second main function of the treasury management service was the funding of the council’s capital plans. These capital plans provided a guide to the borrowing need of the council, which was essentially the longer-term cash flow planning, to ensure that the council could meet its capital spending obligations. This management of longer-term cash may involve arranging long or short-term loans, or using longer-term cash flow surpluses. On occasion, when it was prudent and economic, any existing debt would also be restructured to meet council risk or cost objectives.

 

Cabinet confirmed that it had complied with the requirement under the Treasury Management Code of Practice to give prior scrutiny to all of the above treasury management reports by the Governance and Audit Committee before they were reported to the full council. Member training on treasury management issues was last undertaken during 2019/20 in order to support members’ scrutiny role, and further training would be arranged as required.

 

Councillor Yates proposed, Councillor Everitt seconded and Cabinet agreed to:

 

1.  Note the actual 2019-20 prudential and treasury indicators in this report;

2.  Approve this Annual Treasury Management report for 2019-20;

3.  Recommend this report to council.


Meeting: 22/07/2020 - Governance & Audit Committee (Item 22)

22 Treasury Management Outturn Report pdf icon PDF 550 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Chris Blundell led the discussion for this item and made the following comments:

 

·  The figures used the report were provisional as final accounts have not yet been finalised;

·  Any significant changes would lead to an updated report being provided to the committee;

·  There were a number of indicators that the council has to report against. One part of the report is on cashflow and the other part is how council funds its capital programme including how council pays for its investments;

·  There has been a significant underspend against both the General Fund and HRA. There was a budget of about £36million but only £17million was spent;

·  This is a trend that needs to be tackled. It is anticipated that there would further slippage of projects into the future;

·  There was a report going to the July Cabinet with those issues and a report would also be coming to the committee in September with further details on the draft outturn position;

·  The council’s capital finance requirements should not be higher in the short term than the actual debts; At year end the council was holding debts of £25million of debts and total future debts requirements of £50million;

·  The council would under borrow in order to meet the balance. A COUNCIL was required by statutes to hold debt limit of £103million, in a year. However at year end, the council had a total of £30.5million debt;

·  Council had £33.9million worth of investment. Council is therefore in a net investment position at year. The investment is a very low risk money market;

·  The was a breach in overdraft limits due to a clerical error. This was because the officer who usually undertakes these duties was annual leave and a colleague forgot to undertake the daily task, leading to the council being overdrawn by a day. This was despite all procedure rules being in place;

·  Counter party limits with the council’s bank exceeded the limits. This was due to the unusual operational circumstances as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus was deemed acceptable due the circumstances.

 

Councillor Dexter proposed, Councillor Campbell seconded and Members agreed the following: that

 

1.  To note the actual 2019-20 prudential and treasury indicators in this report;

 

2.  To approve this Annual Treasury Management report for 2019-20;

 

3.  To recommend this report to Cabinet and Council.