Agenda item

FIVE YEAR CAPITAL PROGRAMME (COUNCIL FUND) - 2022/23 TO 2026/27

Minutes:

(NOTE: Councillors S.J.G Gilasbey and A. Davies having earlier made declarations on this item repeated those declarations)

 

The Cabinet Member for Resources presented to the Council, on behalf of the Cabinet, the Five-Year Capital Programme (Council Fund) 2022/23 to 2026/2027, which took into account the consultation exercise undertaken. The Cabinet, at its meeting held on the 21st February, 2022 [minute 6 refers] had considered the Programme and had made a number of recommendations for Council’s consideration.

 

The new programme would see £275m of investment over five years.  The programme would be supported by funding from Welsh Government, the UK Government, and the council’s own resources. 

 

It was noted that the detailed provisional capital programme was presented to the Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 2nd February 2022 for consultation. Following concerns raised regarding the lack of Welsh Government grant funding available for highways, the programme had been revised to include further commitments in this area.  An extract from the relevant minute of the meeting was appended to the report as Appendix B for information.

 

It was reported that the programme included two new transformational projects.  The first, a £19.6m hub at the heart of Carmarthen Town Centre and the second being a £19m investment to complete the Tywi Valley Path between Carmarthen and Llandeilo.  As part of the project, £366k would be available to upgrade parking provision.  Furthermore, an additional funding of £16m would be made available for Zone 1 of the Pentre Awel development in Llanelli, bringing the total investment on the project to £87m. 

 

Council was advised that in addition to the above there was continued support for the following:

 

·       £2.5m for Disability Facilities Grants

·       £250k to improve Road Safety

·       £600k for ongoing Highway Refurbishment

·       £400k for Public Lighting

·       £3m for Capital Maintenance for investment in property estate.

 

The creation of a new annual award of £250k starting in 2022/23 for highway drainage infrastructurewould help make the highway network more resilient to future weather events and reduce flood risks.  2026/27 also saw the proposed continuation of the £66k annual allocation to Rights of Ways and Byways.

 

It was reported that further investments would be made across the programme:

 

·       Education would see funds made available to complete the replacement bus bays at Ysgol Dyffryn Taf, and the introduction of a £500k annual award for general education works.

 

·       Communities would be provided with a Disability Facilities Grants with an uplifted 2025/26 investment by £500k to £2.5m per annum, bringing the total investment over the 5 years to £10.5m. Within the leisure portfolio an uplift of £1m in funding was proposed for the upgrade of the 3G pitch at Amman Valley Leisure Centre bringing the total funding available for the project to £2m.

 

·       In Environment, £150k across 2022/23 and 2023/24 to match fund flood management and flood mitigation works was planned. £4.7m for the replacement of refuse and recycling vehicles, together with an additional £1m from reserves as the Authority’s match funding contribution to the Waste Strategy which would see the rollout of kerbside sorting for recycling collections. 

 

Council was advised that to mitigate for the lack of Welsh Government support specifically for investment in highways the programme included £2.4m of new money funded from the council’s reserves.  This would be in addition to the £600k in the annual rolling programme.  It was confirmed that £1.3m of hypothecated general capital funding that had been made available to the Authority late in the current financial year 2021-22 had also been earmarked for highway improvements.  Taken together this was the biggest single investment of £4.3m in local highway infrastructure by the Council in recent years.

 

An estimated award of £1.34m funding from Welsh Government from 2023/24 onwards was anticipated to fund decarbonisation projects and therefore included in the programme.  However, given that this funding would not be available until the second year of the programme it was proposed to provide £500k from council reserves in 2022/23 to kickstart decarbonisation measures across the built estate. 

 

£2.7m allocated for Information Communication Technology (ICT) across the programme would be maintained, including annual funding of £200k to support digital transformational projects across council services.

 

It was highlighted that the County Council funding available for this programme was currently estimated at £141m and included borrowing, both supported and short-term unsupported, reserves, private finance and direct revenue funding. Capital grants and contributions of £134m would come from external grant funding bodies.

 

As part of this year’s settlement Welsh Government provided indicative general capital funding figures up to 2024/25 which was reflected in the programme.  Funding for years four and five of the programme was based on an assumed level of support equivalent to that received in 2024/25 going forward.  It was noted that Welsh Government funding for 2022/23 was £1.8m less than that received in 2021/22 which was unexpected.  Given the significant investments in years 1 and 2 of the programme and the reduced capital settlement from Welsh Government it was proposed to make use of unsupported borrowing, short-term, to prevent what would otherwise be a shortfall in funding at the start of the programme.  This would be repaid in years 3, 4 and 5 of the programme.

 

Appendix A appended to the report detailed the full programme, which was fully funded for the five years.

It was noted that as required by the prudential code of capital finance the Council’s Capital Strategy document was appended as Appendix C.  This document sets out the long-term context in which capital expenditure and investment decisions were made and gave due consideration to both risk and reward and the impact on achievement of priority outcomes.

 

RESOLVED that the following recommendations of the Cabinet be adopted:

 

5.2.1

The Five-Year Capital Programme and its funding detailed in Appendix A to the report with 2022/23 being a hard budget and 2023/24 to 2026/27 soft/indicative budgets be approved;

 

5.2.2

The programme be reviewed, as usual, if anticipated external or County Council funding did not materialise;

 

5.2.3

The Capital Strategy, as detailed in Appendix C be approved;

 

5.2.4

The Director of Corporate Services, in consultation with the Chief Executive, Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources be delegated authority to make any adjustments necessary as a consequence of the Welsh Governments final settlement due on the 1st March 2022.

 

At 12.40p.m. the meeting was adjourned for a comfort break and reconvened at 12.45 p.m.

 

Supporting documents:

 

Council & Democracy

The Council

Councillors, AMs and MPs

Council departments

Have your say

Committees & Meetings

Strategies and plans