Issue - items at meetings - Funding of City Deal non-project costs

To consider the attached report.

The Executive Board:

(a) AGREED that the pooled New Homes Bonus resource, as set out in the report, be used to fund the non-project costs required to support the successful delivery of the City Deal programme.

(b) NOTED that funding from this source was a commitment for 2015/16 only and that any further funding would be subject to a formal budget statement presented to the Board prior to the start of each financial year.

(c) AGREED that a detailed budget for 2015/16 would be considered by the Executive Board at the next meeting.

(d) AGREED that the three local authorities be requested to make initial budgetary provisions within their respective Medium Term Financial Strategies in line with the contents of the report, subject to the on-going availability of New Homes Bonus to the levels set out in the report.

(e) AGREED that the Chief Finance Officer of the County Council be given delegated responsibility to incur any essential expenditure pending the agreement of a detailed budget appertaining to the functions contained in the report, subject to a cap of £150,000 for the financial year.

(f) AGREED to consider additional opportunities for the use of pooled resources at a future meeting.

The Executive Board considered a report which sought agreement, in principle, to the pooling of local authority resources in order to provide the necessary resources to support the delivery of the programme that could not be capitalised through individual projects.

Chris Malyon, Cambridgeshire County Council’s Chief Finance Officer, presented the report and referred the Board to the table in the report which set out the current projections of receipts that would derive from New Homes Bonus funding from the three partner Councils and could be made available for pooling purposes. It was emphasised that the allocation of these sums would be subject to the ratification of the respective Councils during their forthcoming budget deliberations and approvals.

At this stage, the following costs had been identified as non-project relating activity that would require funding to ensure the successful delivery of the City Deal programme:

· central coordination;

· strategic communications;

· economic assessments/triggers.

It was reported that the detailed resource requirements for the above functions had not been fully evaluated, but a detailed set of budget proposals would be developed and set out in a future report to the Joint Assembly and Executive Board. An initial budget would be available for reporting to the next meeting of the Assembly.

Other non-project costs that were already being, and would continue to be, absorbed by the three partner Councils were noted as follows:

· democratic governance;

· legal and audit services;

· financial services;

· programme leadership.

It was noted that the Joint Assembly had recommended that a cap of £150,000 should be put in place on any essential non-project relating expenditure incurred with regard to the delegated authority given to the County Council’s Chief Finance Officer.