The Head and Finance and Performance sought approval for a revised capital programme for 2013-14 to 2023-24.  This was required to reflect additional funding required to support some projects and to re-profile spend across financial years following slippage in 2013-14.  Changes were also required to the Capital Programme to reflect changes to funding profiles for various schemes, in that the Welsh Government had now confirmed the funding for the 21^st Century Schools Programme to be met from the Local Government Borrowing Initiative and that which would be met from the capital grant.  Changes were also required to reflect re-allocations of Special Regeneration Funding (SRF) to/from specific projects within the overall annual SRF allocation and recognised new schemes in the programme such as Vibrant and Viable places.

                           The Head and Finance and Performance informed the Council that the Capital Programme included an SRF annual allocation of £540k up to and including 2016-17, which provides flexibility in the Capital Programme to enable the Council to take advantage of and maximise external funding opportunities, mitigate funding shortfalls which can occur between grant bid and offers stages and provide some contingency for additional spending pressures on regeneration projects.

                           The Head and Finance and Performance reported that the Quarter 3 monitoring report presented to Cabinet on 4 February 2014 identified a number of schemes

which had variances compared to budget and which had since been revised.  The total expenditure on capital on 2013-14 was £36.912m, £2,398m less than budget, of this, £2.221m was proposed to be carried forward into 2014-15, resulting in an underspend of £177k.  Only £65k was required, resulting in an under-spend of £135k.  Two of the projects included in the Quarter 3 monitoring report were in relation to Porthcawl Harbour and Maesteg Town Centre Regeneration.  In relation to the Porthcawl Harbour development the original budget approved for the project was £3.350m, the current projected spend was £3.867m as a result of additional costs of early warning notices issued by the contractor and other unforeseen works.  Negotiations with the contractor were on-going and it was not possible to provide a definitive outturn figure at this point, however the budget had been revised to £3.872m, due to the reduction of grant funding along with a revenue contribution towards flood damage works and a proposal to use £300k from capital receipts, including those generated from the sale of the Jennings building to meet the balance.  The Internal Audit Section was currently reviewing this project and would provide a report to the Audit Committee in September.

            The Head and Finance and Performance reported that the regeneration of Maesteg Town Centre commenced in 2003-4 comprising four phases, some of which ran concurrently over the period.  The total budget for all four phases was £7.611m with estimated expenditure to be £7.387m.  Expenditure of phases one to three resulted in an underspend of £97k which was transferred to phase four of the project which was nearing completion.  The project costs for phase four was projected to be £2.812m, resulting in an underspend of £127k which would be carried forward in the capital programme to meet future match funding arrangements for regeneration projects.

            The Head and Finance and Performance reported that the capital programme for 2014-15 had been amended to take into account the funding of the 21^st Century Schools Programme.  There are some new schemes which had been included within the programme following the approval of external funding, in particular a Welsh Government grant of £0.335m for the payment of land compensation payments and the approval of £5.98m from the Vibrant and Viable Places regeneration scheme to enhance Bridgend town centre.  The Head and Finance and Performance informed Council that a budget of £600k had been included in the capital programme for the replacement of the roof at Bridgend Market, following a recent tender process it had been determined that the full cost of the works, including fees would be approximately £700k and consequently the budget had been increased by £100k to meet the full cost.    The Head and Finance and Performance also reported that in order that the Council can act swiftly when property investment opportunities present themselves it was proposed that £1m is allocated within the capital programme for 2014-15 for this purpose, which would be subject to annual review, to maximise income generating opportunities with the aim of alleviating pressure on the revenue budget.

            The Head and Finance and Performance also informed the Council that funding was included in the Council Programme of £500k in respect of improvements to office accommodation to progress the Maximisation Space and Technology Programme.  Work was due to progress on the building works, but additional funding of £300k was required to enable works to be advanced on the fourth floor and on the first floor in order to escalate the programme, including aiding partnership working on the ground floor.  It would also enable Sunnyside to be vacated to generate a capital receipt.

            The Head and Finance and Performance reported that some projects in the capital programme had been re-profiled across financial years and outlined the most significant variations.

RESOLVED:         That Council approved the revised Capital Programme.