Contact: Paul Carey-Kent, Deputy County Treasurer ext 7525, e-mail: [email protected], Dave Ward, Assistant Director ext 7259, e-mail: [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report proposes the capital programme for 2005/06 to 2008/09 (shown as Appendix 1).

2 Introduction

2.1 The following guideline limits were set by Cabinet at its meeting on 13 December 2004 for the locally resourced programme for Social Services.

2.2 The guidelines include an addition of 2.5% for inflation, in line with the non-pay inflation assumption for the revenue budget. However, Executive members have been requested to identify cashable efficiency savings of up to 1.25%. The target for savings relating to this service's locally resourced capital programme are:

2.3 Executive members may vary the guidelines between years provided their total four-year guideline is not exceeded and bunching of payments in any one year or front-loading is avoided.

2.4 Executive members may propose supplementing their capital guidelines under the `prudential framework' agreed by Cabinet at its meeting on 24 November 2003, thereby integrating more closely decisions on revenue and capital spending in support of Corporate Aims. The additions may include:

· virement from the Executive member's revenue budget

· temporary unsupported borrowing, to provide bridging finance in advance of capital receipts or other contributions, with the cost of servicing the unsupported borrowing in the interim being met from the Executive member's revenue budget.

2.5 In addition, Executive members may propose additional schemes funded from:

· use of Executive member's share of capital receipts obtained in 2003/04 as allocated by the Cabinet in June 2004 (if not already used for the 2004/05 programme)

· anticipating their share of capital receipts obtained in 2004/05 provided the receipt has actually been received.

3 Capital programme 2005/06 to 2008/09 - locally resourced schemes

3.1 The Social Services Department's underlying, annual capital cash limit is £760,000. £100,000 of this is specifically made available by the Cabinet to aid the development of the supported housing programme. The remainder of the proposed programme consists principally of funding of schemes within local resources consists of `block' allocation at the minimum level necessary to deal with the most urgent Health and Safety and other statutory requirements:

3.2 In addition the 2005/06 guideline has been increased by £375,000 to reflect Policy and Resources' contribution towards the proposed Hythe and Dibden day centre for older people. Social Services are due to make a matching contribution of £375,000 towards this scheme. Clearly this will not be possible from within the capital cash limit, so this funding will have to be through future generation of capital receipts, supported as necessary by a bridging loan as referred to in paragraph 2.4 above.

3.3 Other major schemes will have to be financed by other means such as Policy and Resources Built Estate programme, use of capital receipts, joint working with Health, credit approvals linked to the Public Service Agreements, Private Finance Initiatives or the new prudential framework referred to above.

4 Capital programme 2005/06 to 2008/09 - schemes supported by Government approvals

4.1 Two schemes will be supported by government approvals for 2005/06 they are: Information management (£386,000) and Children's Information Technology (£230,000). The Information Management scheme links to Aim 5 of the Corporate Strategy of `Improving Services'. The Children's Information Technology scheme links to corporate aim 1: Maximising life opportunities and in particular improving the educational attainment of young people in care. The Information Management scheme continues into 2006/07 (£386,000).

5 Private finance initiative schemes

5.1 Discussions have taken place with regard to the possibilities of schemes suitable for PFI projects. No schemes have been identified at this stage.

5.2 Reports will be brought to the Executive Member for Social Care and to the Social Care Policy Review Committee if any scheme is proposed.

6 Capital Programme Summary

6.1 On the basis of the position outlined above, the total value of the capital programmes submitted for consideration for the four years to 2008/09 are:

7 Revenue Implications

7.1 The revenue implications of the proposed capital programme are as follows:

7.2 The total revenue implications for the four years of the starts programme, including capital charges, represent a real term increase of 0.2% over the 2004/05 original budget of this service.

Section 100 D - 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.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

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

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