Issue - meetings

To consider a report by the Head of Financial Services containing a proposed Treasury Management Strategy, which is required under the Council’s Code of Financial Management.

Recommended to Council that the Treasury Management Strategy for 2013/14 be approved alongwith the Treasury Management Indicators and Prudential Indicators for 2013/14.

By way of a report by the Head of Financial Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Cabinet was invited to consider the contents of the Treasury Management Strategy for 2013/14.  The Strategy had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Economic Well-Being) whose comments were relayed to the Cabinet. 

Particular attention was drawn to a new element of the Strategy which allows the Council to provide loan finance to local organisations that can support Council services or to organisations where the Council may make a make a margin on the loan subject to adequate safeguards.  Having been advised that discussion on the criteria for such loans would be considered at the Treasury Management Group and that each loan would require Cabinet approval, the Cabinet

RESOLVED

that subject to appropriate adjustments to the Planned Borrowing Table as a consequence of the final settlement in relation to special and specific grants, the Council be recommended to approve:-

¨  the Treasury Management Strategy for 2013/14; and

¨  the Treasury Management Indicators and Prudential Indicators for 2013/14.

To consider a report by the Head of Financial Services prior to its consideration by the Cabinet.

(Councillor J A Gray, Executive Councillor for Resources, was in attendance for this item).

In accordance with its responsibility for scrutinising Treasury Management and with the assistance of a report by the Head of Financial Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Panel reviewed the Treasury Management Policy for 2013/14 and the Treasury Management Strategy and Prudential Indicators for the same period.

In considering the contents of the Policy and Strategy and in response to questions raised by the Panel, Members were advised of the terms of the contract for the receipt of advice from an independent firm of Treasury Management Advisors and assured that the Treasury Management Advisory Group provided oversight of the Strategy and the actions taken under it. An explanation of the legal rules relating to the receipt of Council Tax, the onward payment of it to other precepting bodies and the use of the cash flow benefit that was created was also provided.

Having noted that a new element of the 2013/14 Policy and Strategy was the potential for the Council to provide loan finance to local organisations, Members were informed that this would enable the Council to make a margin on the loan, subject to adequate safeguards being in place. Although the Panel indicated their support for the suggestion that the District Council should investigate whether this might provide a contribution towards the savings that the Authority needed to find, Members were of the opinion that loans should only be made for the purpose of supporting Council services or creating benefit for the residents of Huntingdonshire. Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

that the Cabinet be recommended to endorse the Treasury Management Policy and the Treasury Management Strategy and Prudential Indicators for 2012/13 for submission to the Council.