Agenda and minutes

Councillor Leslie Ayoola - Council Business.

None.

Report of the Strategic Director of Finance

In the absence of the Chair it was decided that given the tight timescales the meeting should begin and Councillor Malcolm Wood (Vice Chair) opened the meeting.

Glyn Daykin introduced the Treasury Management 2017/18 Half Yearly Update report. He highlighted the following points:

(a)  This report is normally heard at the February meeting  which then goes to gain approval at the March full Council meeting, however due to a change in the investment strategy for later part of 2017/18 it was necessary for it to be heard before then and approved a the full Council meeting in January;

(b)  The changes to the strategy include a revision to the existing Operational Boundary and the Authorised Limit for external debt within the Prudential Indicators.

(c)  Once the review of CIPFA codes is complete there will be a review of the reporting framework which will be reported to a future meeting of the Audit Committee;

At this point the Chair arrived and took up Chairing the meeting.

(d)  The changes to the strategy will increase the scope of further borrowing  in the last part of 2017/18. The Council expects to borrow an additional £252million  in 2017/18 based on the revised capital program and forcast cash flow requirements;

Following questions and comments from the Committee the following information was highlighted:

(e)  There have been some concerns raised following the report by Centre for Cities of the Non-Treasury Investment Strategy, that investments outside of Nottingham should be made in Brexit resilient areas. The committee felt that a greater level of scrutiny should be in place around investment decisions;

(f)  Nottingham City Council has now received 100% of the original investment and residual interest from the Icelandic bank. Tighter internal controls have been implemented since this incident and are applied to all new investments;

(g)  Nottingham City is fairly comparable to other authorities in terms of credit ratings. In terms of risk external advice is sought and this is a reasonably standard approach;

(h)  The Treasury arm of Capita has now been taken over by Link Asset, an Australian based firm. They have advised clients that frontline services will remain the same.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  Invite property colleagues to do a joint presentation on investment at the next meeting; and

(2)  Note the treasury management actions taken in 2017/18 to date and to note the recommended changes to the prudential indicators.