Contact: Jon Pittam (01962) 847400 [email protected]

Andrew Smith (01962) 847826 [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 The County Council has prepared and published a Capital Strategy each year since the Government made it a requirement in 2001. That requirement was removed in 2004 but an up-to-date Capital Strategy remains an important part of the Council's sound asset management. It will continue to be a key consideration under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment by the Audit Commission. It is also one of the key documents that underpin the Council's Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2007/08 to 2009/10 which was approved by Cabinet in May 2007. The Medium Term Financial Strategy requires that the Capital Strategy is reviewed annually.

1.2 An updated draft of the Capital Strategy is attached as Appendix 1.

2 Recommendation

To approve the updated Capital Strategy attached as Appendix 1.

3 Revisions since 2006

3.1 Apart from updating the statistics and examples, there are some significant changes in the attached draft Capital Strategy compared with the version approved for 2006. This is consistent with the concept of a `strategic' document that sets the scene for asset management and capital investment for at least the duration of the four-year capital programme.

3.2 The main changes in the draft Capital Strategy, compared with the approved version for 2006, cover:

· the Council's Medium Term Financial Strategy, approved by Cabinet in May 2007 (paragraph 1.2)

· meeting the requirements on asset management in the Audit Commission's Use of Resources assessment (paragraph 3.6)

· the beginning of the strategic Property Review and Cabinet's medium term decision in May 2007 to bring forward land for development from 2010 onwards (paragraph 4.5)

· the Council's decision not to take up in full Government borrowing allocations now that the Government no longer provides revenue grant in support of all the borrowing costs, subject to the outcome of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 and the three-year revenue grant settlement in December 2007 (paragraph 4.7)

· the award of excellent status to the County Council's local transport plan (paragraph 5.4)

· the emerging South East Plan, replacing references to the Hampshire County Structure Plan in the 2006 document (paragraph 6.1)

· the Aalborg Commitments, replacing references to the Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy (paragraph 6.1)

· the fundamental service review (paragraph 7.1)

· the implementation of the refurbishment works on Ashburton Court which is part of the wider efficiency review (paragraph 12.14).

3.3 There is also a need to report and update the more detailed corporate asset management plan (AMP). This focuses on the Council's property assets and complements the Local Transport Plan for highways and transport assets and the Education AMP for schools. An updated corporate AMP will be reported to the Buildings, Land and Procurement Panel later in the year.

4 Impact assessment

4.1 The Capital Strategy draws upon existing documents prepared in accordance with the County Council's financial and asset management policies. These policies apply equally to all services and ensures consistent decisions across all services.

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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