Agenda item

Treasury Management Outturn 2022-23

Minutes:

This report was introduced by the Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change and its purpose was to update Members on the outturn position for Treasury Management activities for 2022-2023, the indicators for the same year and to highlight compliance with the Council’s policies and practices. 

 

The key points were as follows:

 

  • The treasury management strategy for 2022-2023 was approved by Council on 23rd February last year.
  • The report outlines the economic context within which the Treasury Management activity took place last year. The issues included:

 

  • The war in Ukraine kept global inflation rates high.
  • The economic backdrop in January to March 2023 was characterised by high energy and commodity prices, high inflation which has impacted on household budgets and spending. The Consumer Price Index rose to 10.1% in the 12 months to March 2023.
  • Interest rates were increased on a number of occasions during the year to try to curb inflation. The bank rate started the year at 0.75% and increased 8 times during the year to 4.25% as of 31st March 2023.

 

  • A summary of Treasury Management activities during last year is shown in Appendix A. Table 1 in the report summarises the Council’s position with regard to External Debt and Investments. In summary:

 

  • No long-term debt was taken out during the year.
  • No debt was rescheduled during the year as there was no financial benefit to the Council to do this. This will be kept under review in the current year.
  • There was a small increase in the number of Salix interest free loans the Council has.
  • The total external borrowing that the Council is managing was £99.93 million at the end of March 2023.
  • The balance of Investments at the year-end was £74.5 million which is reduction of £10 million as compared with March 2022.
  • The income being earned via the investments is increasing as the base rate has increased.
  • The average interest rate increased from 0.43% in 2021-2022 to 2.55% in 2022-2023.
  • When investing the Council’s monies, due regard is given to ensure the security and liquidity of the investments before seeking the highest rate of return.

 

In the discussion that followed, members commented as follows:

 

  • That the report would benefit from a summary of highlights and a few graphs. He thought this would assist residents trying to understand the Council’s approach to treasury management. In response, the Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change noted that this was a very technical area and there were certain things that have to be reported in particular ways to comply with the requirements in this area but there was no reason why summaries could not be prepared.

 

  • Whether there was an opportunity to settle the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) debt related to the secondary school in Maesteg from reserves. In response, the Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change suggested she would have to look at the details of that particular agreement to see whether or not that Is a possibility and also, given the way interest rates are changing, whether there were advantages or otherwise to us in repaying it.

 

  • That the training offered by officers to help members understand reports of this kind was extremely valuable. In response, the Chairperson noted that officers put in a tremendous amount of time for training but if further training was needed it could be undertaken. The Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change added that it would be helpful to offer refresher training annually for issues like treasury management as members do not receive the reports very frequently.

 

RESOLVED:

 

The Committee:

 

·       noted the annual treasury activities for 2022-23.

·       noted the actual Treasury Management Indicators for 2022-23 against those approved in the Treasury Management Strategy 2022-23.

 

Supporting documents: