Agenda item

Decision

That Cabinet considers and agrees the half-year report on targets and performance, in Sections 4-7 of the report.

Corporate objectives

Dacorum Delivers – Optimising investment income for General Fund and Housing Revenue budgets whilst managing investment risk is fundamental to achieving the corporate objective of delivering an efficient and modern Council.

Monitoring Officer/S.151 Officer comments

Monitoring Officer:  

No comments to add to the report.

Deputy S.151 Officer

This is a Section 151 Officer Report.

Advice

Cllr Elliot introduced the report, noting the following headlines;

·         Investment performance is strong and exceeding target benefiting from increase in interest rate.

·         Level of balances have gone up as the Council continues to invest.

·         Slight slip in some projects, such as multi story car park. 

·         Increased receipts for garage sales.

FJump added that the average rate of return for first 6 months is 0.6% which she commented is reasonable given historically low interest rates.

Cllr Birnie referred to page 15 of the report, specifically item 7.3 and the items in the table - Capital Grants and s.106 and asked; what source are the grants from?

FJump confirmed they are from variety of sources, including disabled facilities grant as an example, confirming she could circulate full breakdown if required

Cllr Birnie referred to item immediately under that; capital receipts and reserves and asked; how much of that is from reserves?  Commenting that it is quite a significant amount.

Cllr Harden asked; is that the breakdown list we already have? 

JDeane advised that the reserves Cllr Harden was referring to are General Fund Revenue Reserves and that they are not what’s funding capital expenditure. Rather, the capital reserves Cllr Birnie asked about are almost entirely within the HRA, and largely refer to capital expenditure from the Major Repairs Reserve

Cllr Birnie referred to borrowing in item 6.8 and asked; can it be assumed that is borrowing from statutory bodies? 

FJump confirmed yes; existing borrowing from statutory bodies.

Cllr Birnie expressed concern with appendix and the £8m in investments with other Councils, asking; In view of problems some Councils are having with their budgets and ability to remain stable, are there plans to roll those over or are we going to go for safer things like banks?

Cllr Elliot responded that Local Councils are likely sounder in a financial crisis than banks; they are underwritten by government so it is not likely for them to be reneged on.

FJump added that the Council use a credit rating to give extra assurance before lending.

Cllr Collins referred to Appendix 1, commenting that the rates of interest do not seem particularly good and asked if there is a way to get better rates (such as retail rates)?

JDeane confirmed there is, but it is dependent on where you put your safety net adding that as a Council we have to look at how safe an investment will be with an organisation; we use the best available investment opportunities that we have and that is how we get it back. 

Recommendations agreed.

Voting

None.