Agenda item

(To consider a report from Michelle Grady, Assistant Director – Strategic Finance, which invites the Board to consider and comment on the Capital Budget Monitoring Report 2020/21 – Quarter 3 to 31 December 2020, which will be presented to the Executive on 2 March 2021. The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

Consideration was given to a report from the Assistant Director – Strategic Finance, which invited the Board to consider and comment on the Capital Budget Monitoring Report 2020/21 – Quarter 3 to 31 December 2020, which would be presented to the Executive on 2 March 2021. The views of the Board would be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item. The report recommended that the Executive noted the position on the capital programme and decided on any corrective action necessary.

The report provided an update on capital spending compared with budgets for the financial year which started on 1 April 2020. The tables in the report showed the net expenditure for the first nine months of this financial year to 31 December 2020, along with the forecasts for spending and a comparison of the forecasts against the latest revised budgets. The report gave an overview of the financial position and detailed information on selected capital programme schemes. The current forecasted position was an underspend of £18.587m(Block schemes £5.159m, Project schemes £13.427m). For the project schemes, the whole life budget was forecast to be overspent by £18.971m.

(Councillor S P Roe declared an interest as the North Hykeham Relief Road was discussed and he left at this point for the remainder of the meeting)

(Councillor N H Pepper gave his apologies as he had another appointment and left the meeting at this point)

Members of the Board asked a number of questions, when the following points were confirmed:

·              As part of the Capital Strategy and improvements to the monitoring of the capital programme, there was now a Capital Review Group who were looking at business cases in an overarching way which included peer review, and were determining whether projects were realistic and ensuring that risks were highlighted at an early stage. It was noted that there were now standardised business case templates and guidance on the information to be included which would ensure all relevant information was captured to be able to make more informed decisions. It also provided a reminder to officers on what information the scrutiny committees and the Executive would need to see. This was being gradually implemented and as a result business cases were coming through in a much better format.

·              It was recommended that Scrutiny Committees should have regular periodic reports right from the start in the larger projects.

·              Highways schemes in particular needed to be better managed in terms of risks and budget forecasting. Future highways schemes, such as the North Hykeham Relief Road, should have more scrutiny of the risks going forward. It was recognised that not all risks could be mitigated against due to third party and contractor involvement.

·              Specific schemes and projects in the capital programme were considered by the relevant scrutiny committee, such as the Special Schools capital scheme appraisals which were being brought forward to the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee. It was thought that members of the Board would benefit if future Capital Budget Monitoring reports about live schemes included information about when and with what result those schemes had been considered by a scrutiny committee so as to highlight that a scrutiny appraisal had taken place.

·             Training on finance and the scrutiny of major projects should be provided so that councillors had the skills and confidence to interrogate the financial information presented at the scrutiny committees. This training had been incorporated into the Induction programme for councillors after the elections on 6 May 2021.

RESOLVED:

1)        That the Board support the recommendations to the Executive, as set out in the report and outlined above;

2)        That a summary of the comments made be passed on to the Executive in relation to this item.