Issue - meetings

As recommended by the Commissioners on 27^th February, 2015.

Further to Minute No. 4 of the meeting of the Commissioners’ held on 27th February, 2015 consideration was given to a report that detailed how, in accordance with the Prudential Code for Capital Finance, the Secretary of State’s Guidance on Local Government Investments, CIPFA’s Code of Practice for Treasury Management in Local Authorities and with Council policy, the Director of Financial Services was required, prior to the commencement of each financial year to seek the approval of the Council to the following:-

i.        The Prudential Indicators and Limits for 2015/16 to 2017/18 (Appendix A)

ii.       A Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Statement which sets out the Council’s policy on MRP (Appendix A)

iii.      An Annual Treasury Management Strategy in accordance with the CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management including the Authorised Limit (Appendix B)

iv.      An Investment Strategy in accordance with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) investment guidance (Appendix B)

Despite this being a technical and complex report the key messages were:-

a.      Investments – the primary governing principle would remain security over return and the criteria for selecting counterparties reflect this. Cash available for investment would remain low, resulting in low returns.

b.      Borrowing – overall, this would remain fairly constant over the period covered by this report and the Council would remain under-borrowed against its borrowing requirement due to the higher cost of carrying debt.  New borrowing would only be taken up as debt matures.

c.       Governance – strategies were reviewed by the Audit Committee with continuous monitoring which included Mid-Year and Year End reporting.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the prudential indicators and limits for 2015/16 to 2017/18 contained in Appendix A to the report be approved.

(2)  That the Minimum Revenue Provision Statement contained in Appendix A which sets out the Council’s policy on MRP be approved.

(3)  That the Treasury Management Strategy for 2015/16 to 2017/18 and the Authorised Limit Prudential Indicator (Appendix B) be approved.

(4)  That the Investment Strategy for 2015/16 to 2017/18 (Appendix B – Section (e) and Annex B1) be approved.

Mover:-  Councillor Read, Leader             Seconder:-  Councillor Watson,

                                                                        Deputy Leader

-     Strategic Director of Resources and Transformation to report