Agenda item

The report was considered by the Financial Planning Task Group on 7 July 2023 and Cabinet on 14 July 2023. A report of the Financial Planning Task Group’s discussions is also attached.

The Chairman noted that in the agenda was a report which set out the year end position of the Capital Programme for the council for the financial year 2022/23, including the movements from the original budget, final scheme slippage and how the programme has been funded. The report provided an update on the significant programmes that had been delivered and those that had been reprogrammed into future years. The report was considered by Financial Planning on 7 July and Cabinet on 11 July.

Cllr Gavin Grant, Vice-Chairman of the Financial Planning Task Group raised the following points, including but not limited to in relation to Stone Circle with attention to drawn to where other local authorities had got into difficulty due to the inter-relationship with companies formed under the council. Cllr Grant noted that the housing market was a dynamic market and there was concern that should the assets move in an adverse way it would deliver an asset below the value of the loans that enabled it to happen. Reference was also drawn to changes of the Stone Circle governance structure and the outstanding issue of the scrutiny of that structure. Cllr Grant also referred to the HRA account and the inter-relationship with the capital programme in terms of the general capital outturn position and that the Task Group had requested training to better understand this. Furthermore, it was suggested that there was a wider discussion to be had in relation to the adjustment of capital budgets in the year and that the profiling of capital programmes would more likely sit with the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee rather than the Task Group.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Control and Strategic Planning stated that Stone Circle now had a new governance structure and in relation to points raised about such examples of Croydon and Thurrock, Wiltshire Council was not looking at the purchase of trading assets but rather owning a number of residential properties.

The following comments were received by Members of the Committee but were not limited to that the scrutiny of Stone Circle was an area which wasn’t looked at enough with a need to investigate such scrutiny. The Monitoring Officer, Perry Holmes, noted that a governance review had been carried out in September 2021 and as a result major suggestions had been implemented. Further reference was also drawn to the role of the Stone Circle Shareholders Group, which had been established.

Further points raised included reference towards the positive Overview and Scrutiny culture at Wiltshire Council, which was seen to be in advance of other local authorities. The Section 151 Officer, Andy Brown provided assurance in relation to Wiltshire Council’s exposure to loans, with £22milion of capital loans having been issued though these had been backed out against properties which had been acquired, with it likely that the loan value would increase due to the Council looking to possess a further 250 residential units. The Officer also stated that he was comfortable with the level of exposure and that this was different to other local authorities which had invested heavily and exposed themselves by over-investing in commercial and retail outlets rather than housing.

Additional comments were raised in relation to the High Needs block funding and an underspend of £2.3million, to which officers suggested that though work had been committed in the budget, the money had not been spent this year due to slippage. The officer agreed to provide the Cllr Hubbard with a breakdown of the high needs spending.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1.     To note the capital programme, end of year spend position of £128.380m forfinancial year 2022/23 and the £39.438m of capital programme slippage approved by Cabinet to be rolled forward into future financial years.

2.     The Chair and Vice-chair of OS Management Committee to explore options for scrutiny engagement on the council’s Stone Circle wholly owned companies and to bring proposals back to Committee.