Issue - meetings

On a motion from Councillor Mark Elliott, seconded by Councillor Oli Henman, it was unanimously

RESOLVED that

1.  The Treasury Management Report to 30^th September 2023, prepared in accordance with the CIPFA Treasury Code of Practice, is noted; and

2.  The Treasury Management Indicators to 30^th September 2023 are noted.

The report gives details of performance against the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy for the first half of 2023-24.

Cllr Mark Elliott introduced the report and made the following statement:

“The Treasury Management report sets out the performance of the Council’s investments.  This report is a little less gloomy in that whilst rampant inflation is obviously a very bad thing, it does mean that interest rates have gone up!

We take a prudent approach to treasury management, and we don’t make any risky investments with public money. 

The headlines are:

Our total investments sit at just under £54 million (including £10m held in Environmental, Social and Governance funds), the total being slightly up on the last report, and our borrowing sits at just over £218 million, slightly down on the last report. We are achieving an overall return on investment of 4.64%, we are within target levels on all our key indicators, and that we are now predicting to be £1.11m under budget on our interest and capital financing costs as a result of the higher interest rates and the rephased projects I talked about in the previous report.

All the detail behind that is set out in the report, so I will simply move the recommendations set out in sections 2.1 and 2.2.”

Cllr Tim Ball seconded the recommendation and noted the excellent work carried out by Councillors and Officers.

Cllr Paul May noted that the way the Council runs its finances is crucial to its stability and thanked the Officers for this excellent report.

RESOLVED (unanimously):

(1)  To note the Treasury Management Report to 30^th September 2023, prepared in accordance with the CIPFA Treasury Code of Practice.

(2)  To note the Treasury Management Indicators to 30^th September 2023.