Issue - meetings

Executive Board considered the attached report.

RECOMMENDED: That Council adopt the updated Operational Boundary and Authorised Limits as detailed in paragraph 3.18 of the report.

          The Council considered a report of the Operational Director, Finance, which provided an update on the Treasury Management Half Year Report 2018/19.

          RESOLVED: That Council

1)    adopts the updated Operational Boundary and Authorised Limits, as detailed in paragraph 3.18 of the report; and

2)    notes the report.

The Board considered a report of the Operational Director, Finance, which updated Members on the activities undertaken on the money market, as required by the Treasury Management Policy.

The report provided supporting information on the economic background, interest rate forecast, short term borrowing rates, longer term borrowing rates, borrowing/investments, budget monitoring, new long term borrowing, policy guidelines and treasury management indicators. It was noted that no debt rescheduling had been undertaken during the quarter.

One of the key Treasury Indicators set by the Council as part of the Treasury Management Strategy was the Operational Boundary (the limit beyond which external debt was normally expected to exceed) and the Authorised Limit (the limit beyond which external debt was prohibited). Due to the valuation of the Mersey Gateway Bridge being required to be included during the preparation of the 2017/18 Statement of Accounts, an additional £644m was added to the Council’s Capital Financing Requirement.  This represented the capital element of the future Unitary Payments the Council were due to make over the next thirty years, funded from toll income.  It should be noted that this was a purely accounting adjustment and did not reflect any additional borrowing over and above what was already taken.

RESOLVED: That

1)    Council be recommended to adopt the updated Operational Boundary and Authorised Limits as detailed in paragraph 3.18 of the report; and

2)    the report be noted.