Contact: Jon Pittam, ext 7400 and Andrew Smith, ext 7826

1 Summary

1.1 The Cabinet is asked to approve the draft Capital Strategy and corporate Asset Management Plan.

2 Reasons

2.1 The Government requires the County Council to forward the context pages from the Capital Strategy and the property performance indicators from the corporate Asset Management Plan to the Government Office for the South East by 31 July 2003. The full Capital Strategy and corporate Asset Management Plan will be used as background to consultations on the budget for 2004/05.

3 Other options considered and rejected

3.1 Not applicable.

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker or a member or officer consulted

4.1 Not applicable.

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

5.1 Not applicable.

6 Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent

7 Not applicable.

Approved by: Date:

Councillor T.K Thornber, C.B.E.

Contact: Jon Pittam, ext 7400 and Andrew Smith, ext 7826

1 Summary

1.1 For the last two years, the Government has required local authorities to prepare a Capital Strategy and a corporate Asset Management Plan (AMP) to its specification and submit the documents to their local Government Office by 31 July.

1.2 As part of its concessions to ease the burden on local authorities, the Government has decided that those authorities, such as the County Council, that gained an "excellent" rating under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment or whose documents were rated as "good" in 2002 should be required to forward only the introductory context pages from the Capital Strategy and the property performance indicators from the AMP.

1.3 The Government still expects all local authorities to prepare both documents in full as it considers them to be essential budgetary and management tools. They should also be used, according to the Government, to consult and inform stakeholders. Keeping the documents up-to-date is likely to be a key requirement in future Comprehensive Performance Assessments, even for authorities rated as excellent. They will also underpin the Council's approach to capital planning when the proposed prudential system of capital controls is introduced by the Government. This is still forecast to be 1 April 2004 but it is dependent on the Local Government Bill receiving Royal Asset this autumn and supporting regulations and prudential code of practice being published.

1.4 Drafts of the revised documents for 2003 are attached, as follows:

Appendix 1 - the context pages from the Capital Strategy

Appendix 2 - the property performance indicators

Appendix 3 - the remainder of the Capital Strategy

Appendix 4 - the corporate AMP.

1.5 As the Capital Strategy and corporate AMP are policy plans, it will be necessary for the County Council to approve them. It is suggested that the Council should adopt them at the budget meeting in February 2004. Any amendments that arise from the consultation processes over the autumn can then be included. It also seems sensible to link the approval of these plans with Council's approval of the next capital programme in February 2004.

2 Preparation of the drafts for 2003

2.1 The attached drafts have been prepared by a corporate Asset Management Group of officers led by the County Treasurer and the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services and including senior representatives from spending departments.

2.2 The Capital Strategy is intended to show at a strategic level how the management of its assets, including capital investment, enables the Council to achieve its objectives. It should cover all the County Council's services, whilst the more detailed corporate AMP should exclude education assets, highways and transport infrastructure, vehicles, plant and equipment.

2.3 The context pages from the Capital Strategy follow the specification laid down by the Government in its guidance papers. The Government will use the information in its next spending review, particularly the maintenance liabilities in section 4. The property performance indicators are also specified in detail by the Government.

2.4 In the previous two years, the Government allocated 5% of its borrowing approvals on the basis of ministerial assessments of local authorities' Capital Strategy and corporate AMP documents. It has abandoned that approach this year, probably because "excellent" authorities are no longer required to submit the full documents. As the allocation of support is no longer dependent on complying with the Government's detailed specification on matters such as page length and font size, some advantage has been taken in the latest drafts to improve their readability. In the main, however, they follow the current versions updated to reflect later information on outcomes and new examples of the County Council's good practice.

Recommendation

1 That the context pages from the Capital Strategy and the property performance indicators from the corporate Asset Management Plan be approved for forwarding to the Government Office for the South East by 31 July 2003.

2 That the draft Capital Strategy and corporate Asset Management Plan be approved for use as background to consultation with partners and stakeholders on the County Council's budget.

Section 100D Local Government Act 1972 background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

N.B. the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

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