Issue - meetings

Cabinet, at its meeting on 16 February 2024, will consider the attached report of the head of finance on the council’s treasury management and investment strategy for 2024/25.

Cabinet’s recommendations will be circulated to all members prior to the Council meeting. 

Council considered Cabinet’s recommendations made at its meeting on 16 February 2024 on the council’s treasury management and investment strategy for 2024/25. This set out how the council’s treasury service would support the financing of capital investment decisions, and how treasury management operated day to day. The strategy also set out the prudential indicators, providing limits within which the treasury function must operate.

Councillor Crawford, Cabinet member for finance, highlighted there were no changes to the counterparty selection criteria in the proposed strategy for 2024/25, but a recommended change to the strategy this year was the inclusion of an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) statement. He went on to advise that Cabinet had agreed an additional recommendation to note that the section 151 officer has confirmed that he will conduct a review of investment options with our treasury advisers Link and, in line with the Constitution, will report to the Joint Audit and Governance Committee, the review to include the latest analysis on environmental, social and governance investment options.

Both Cabinet and the Joint Audit and Governance Committee had supported the strategy together with approving the prudential indicators and limits and approving the annual investment strategy and lending criteria and the Environmental, Social and Governance Policy.

RESOLVED: to

1. approve the head of finance’s report to Cabinet on 16 February 2024;

2. approve the treasury management strategy 2024/25, as set out in appendix A to the report;

3. approve the prudential indicators and limits for 2024/25 to 2026/27, as set out in appendix A to the report;

4. approve the annual investment strategy 2024/25, as set out in appendix A to the report, and the lending criteria detailed in table 6 in appendix A to the report; and

5. approve the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policy in Appendix E.

To consider the head of finance’s report. 

Cabinet considered the head of finance’s report on the treasury management and investment strategy for 2024/25.  The strategy set out how the council’s treasury service supported the financing of capital investment decisions and how its treasury management function operated.  It included the prudential and treasury indicators within which the council must operate, an annual investment strategy, and a minimum revenue provision policy statement. 

The Joint Audit and Governance Committee had recommended Cabinet to approve:

·       the treasury management strategy 2024/25;

·       the prudential indicators and limits for 2024/25 to 2026/27; 

·       the annual investment strategy 2024/25 and the lending criteria; and 

·       the new Environmental, Social and Governance Policy.  

The Cabinet member for finance welcomed the report and the Joint Audit and Governance Committee’s recommendations.  He also welcomed the addition of the new environmental, social and governance policy, which would be used to assess potential investment options. 

The Cabinet member also proposed an additional recommendation to note that the section 151 officer had confirmed that he would conduct a review of investment options with the council’s treasury advisors, Link, and would report to Joint Audit and Governance Committee, the review to include the latest analysis on environmental, social and governance investment options. 

Cabinet supported the recommendations and thanked the Cabinet member for finance and officers for producing the new environmental, social and governance policy, which would help the council assess investment options. 

The head of finance reported when assessing investment options, the council had to prioritise security, liquidity, and yield.  If after that assessment, two or more options were of equal standard, the new environmental, social and governance policy could then be used to further refine the assessment of investment options. 

RESOLVED: to

(a)        note the treasury management strategy 2024/25, prudential indicator limits and annual investment strategy, as set out in Appendix A to the head of finance’s report to Cabinet on 16 February 2024;

(b)        note the Environmental, Social and Governance Policy, as set out in Appendix E of the report; and

(c)        note that the section 151 officer has confirmed that he will conduct a review of investment options with the council’s treasury advisers Link and, in line with the Constitution, and will report to the Joint Audit and Governance Committee, the review to include the latest analysis on environmental, social and governance investment options. 

RECOMMENDED to Council to:

(d)        approve the treasury management strategy 2024/25, as set out in Appendix A to the head of finance’s report to Cabinet on 16 February 2024;

(e)        approve the prudential indicators and limits for 2024/25 to 2026/27, as set out in Appendix A of the report;

(f)         approve the annual investment strategy 2024/25, as set out in Appendix A of the report, and the lending criteria detailed in table 6; and

(g)       approve the Environmental, Social and Governance Policy, as set out in Appendix E to the report.