• Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • LATIF
  • Conferences
  • Dashboard
  • Edit My Profile
  • Log In
  • Logout
  • Register
  • Edit this post

Room 151

  • 151 BRIEF

    What's New?

  • £400bn pension group collaborates on climate transition initiative

    May 17, 2022

  • CIPFA rejects proposal for vote on publication of fraud hub report

    May 17, 2022

  • John Turnbull elected president of the SLT

    May 12, 2022

  • Pension pool identifies biodiversity as a priority

    May 11, 2022

  • TfL latest to face credit-rating downgrade by Moody’s

    May 10, 2022

  • Government proposes ‘fairer, more accurate’ business rates system

    May 10, 2022

  • Treasury
  • Technical
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • LGPS
  • Development
  • 151 News
  • Blogs
    • David Green
    • Agent 151
    • Dan Bates
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Sheen
    • James Bevan
    • Steve Bishop
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • David Crum
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O’Donnell
    • Jackie Shute
  • Interviews
  • Briefs

Strategies required for capital receipts flexibility

0
  • by Colin Marrs
  • in Resources
  • — 7 Jan, 2016
Building capital

Building capital

Councils wishing to take advantage of new flexibilities to spend capital receipts on revenue services will be required to outline their plans in a dedicated strategy document.

Chancellor George Osborne announced the new powers – which only apply to revenue spending aimed at improving efficiency –  in his Autumn Statement to be effective from April this year.

Shortly before Christmas, the Department for Communities and Local Government released guidance on the new flexibilities, which outlined details of the new strategies.

It said: “The guidance recommends that each authority should prepare a strategy that includes separate disclosure of the individual projects that will be funded or part funded through capital receipts flexibility and that the strategy is approved by full council or the equivalent.

“This strategy can be included as part of the annual budget documentation and approved by full council or the equivalent at the same time as the annual budget.”

As a minimum, the strategies should list each project on which capital receipts will be spent, along with a cost benefit analysis.

They should report the impact on the local authority’s prudential indicators for the forthcoming year and subsequent years.

From 2017-18 strategies will be required to review whether planning savings outlined in previous years are being realised.

The guidance also said that local authorities can only use capital receipts from the sale of property, plant and equipment received in the years in which this flexibility is offered, but not existing receipts.

It listed a range of projects which could generate qualifying expenditure including service sharing, reform feasibility work, freeing up land, digital investment, procurement aggregation, systems to tackle fraud, and setting up alternative delivery models.

Local authorities may not use their existing stock of capital receipts to finance the revenue costs of reform, the document said.

Stephen Sheen, managing partner of local government consultant Ichabod’s Industries, said: “The original proposals in the Autumn Statement have been improved by the replacement of the suggestion that authorities should submit competitive bids to be allowed to use the powers.

“But the biggest flaw of the proposals is that they still rely on authorities generating capital receipts that they can afford to divert to revenue rather than reinvesting in their asset base.

“It would have been more equitable for authorities to be allowed to carry forward costs as revenue deficits to be met from the future savings.”

Share

You may also like...

  • CCLA/Room151 Impact Awards: Deadline extended 29th Apr, 2021
  • Impact Awards: A week to go before deadline 22nd Apr, 2021
  • How can local government ‘build back better’? 25th Feb, 2021
  • Impact Awards launch to celebrate finance teams 25th Mar, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • Register to become a Room151 user

  • Latest tweets

    Room151 11 hours ago

    More evidence of the importance of emerging markets in the journey to net-zero. @BordertoCoast @BrunelPP @northernlgps @EAPensionFund @WYPF_LGPS Click the link below to read 🔻🔻 #LGPS #NetZero #NetZeroCarbon #EmergingMarkets room151.co.uk/brief/400bn-pe… pic.twitter.com/qCm0EGxzLn

    Room151 5 days ago

    ‘Urgent consultation’ issued in response to continuing audit delays: CIPFA and the Local Authority Scotland Accounts Advisory Committee (LASAAC) have announced another “urgent consultation” to consider proposals to address the latest issue that has led… dlvr.it/SQJ0kV pic.twitter.com/s6vw0bnGXO

    Room151 5 days ago

    Bags of capacity – now to housing delivery: HRAs have been freed up and councils are starting to invest, but some remain cautious, writes Steve Partridge. He suggests that a minimum of £10bn of additional borrowing could be[...] dlvr.it/SQDvxk pic.twitter.com/yZmoWzHv6U

    Room151 5 days ago

    Bags of capacity – now to housing delivery room151.co.uk/treasury/bags-…

    Room151 6 days ago

    To Michael Gove: a modest proposal: Conrad Hall has written an open letter to the levelling up secretary suggesting an unusual (and tongue-in-cheek) proposal to help councils predict next year’s government grant. Dear Secretary of State,[...] dlvr.it/SQ9GpX pic.twitter.com/mSX1xgeL8a

    Room151 7 days ago

    Queen’s Speech: an ambitious plan hampered by omissions: Richard Harbord examines the impact of the government’s legislative proposals on councils, and concludes that local authorities expect and need more from central government. However you view the… dlvr.it/SQ8hmP pic.twitter.com/BsnziyNPIO

    Room151 1 week ago

    Insights and inspiration from LGPS leaders past and present: Four current and former LGPS leaders have recently given powerful and insightful interviews as part of the Fiftyfaces podcast, which showcases inspiring investors and their stories. Hosted by… dlvr.it/SQ53lC pic.twitter.com/IRYMFPxdA2

  • Categories

    • 151 News
    • Agent 151
    • Audit
    • Blogs
    • Business rates
    • Chris Buss
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • Council tax
    • Dan Bates
    • David Crum
    • David Green
    • Development
    • Education
    • Forum
    • Funding
    • Governance
    • Graham Liddell
    • Housing
    • Ian O'Donnell
    • Infrastructure
    • Interviews
    • Jackie Shute
    • James Bevan
    • Jobs
    • Levelling up
    • LGPS
    • Mark Finnegan
    • Net Zero
    • Private markets
    • Recent Posts
    • Regulation
    • Resources
    • Responsible investing
    • Richard Harbord
    • Risk management
    • Social care
    • Stephen Fitzgerald
    • Stephen Sheen
    • Steve Bishop
    • Technical
    • Transport
    • Treasury
    • Uncategorized
    • William Bourne
  • Archives

    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013
    • 2012
    • 2011
  • Previous story LGPS countdown continues with seven pools in the running
  • Next story Stephen Sheen: MRP policy ripe for review

© Copyright 2022 Room 151. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.

0 shares