Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Authority

TREASURERS REPORT

FINANCE AND GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE

14th APRIL 2003

A. BORROWING LIMITS FOR 2003/2004.

Fire Authorities are required to determine borrowing limits under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

Recommendations: -

That in accordance with the provisions of Section 39 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, the following determinations for the financial year 2003/2004 be approved:

Overall borrowing limit to cover borrowing for Capital expenditure, temporary fluctuations in cash flows etc. £6 million

Within the borrowing limit:

Short term borrowing £5 million

Variable rates borrowing £5 million

That, if the above limits need to be amended in any way, a further report be submitted for the Authority’s consideration.
That the Treasurer be authorised to undertake actual borrowings with full details of borrowings being reported to the Authority in due course thereafter.

B. TREASURY MANAGEMENT.

For Members information, detailed below are the relevant movements involving Treasury Management of the Authority for the financial year 2002/2003: -

Short Term Borrowing - no short term borrowing was undertaken during the year,

Long Term Borrowing - the Authority had a Basic Credit Approval in respect of Capital Expenditure for the year amounting to £1,034,000, and a balance of Supplementary Credit Approval of £24,605 (spread over two years) to cover expenditure incurred in respect of Equality and Diversity improvements. The following amounts were borrowed from the National Investment and Loans Office (PWLB): -

Loan Reference Number	Loan Amount £	Interest Rate %	Term (Years)
487676 (SCA)	24,605	4.650	7
487676 (BCA)	1,034,000	4.650	20

Short Term Lending - because the Authority is not allowed to hold any reserves, investments are consequently taken to reflect short term cash flow surpluses in order to maximise the use of revenue balances. This involves a substantial number of transactions invested and returned into the Authority's bank account, the value of which for the year was in excess of £200 million. Interest earned will be in excess of £130,000
Long Term Lending - no long term lending was undertaken during the year.

C. QUARTERLY FINANCE REPORT

Attached at Appendix A (PDF document, size 5.4 kb - What is a PDF?) and Appendix B (PDF document, size 4.8 kb - What is a PDF?) are my quarterly reports on actual performance in respect of Revenue and Capital expenditure. The Revenue report shows the expected outturn to be within budgeted resources. This is based on actual expenditure recorded to 31 March 2003, estimated expenditure still to be processed and known/estimated closure entries still to be made. Because of tight reporting deadlines, the Capital report shows confirmed expenditure up to 26 March 2003. Total expenditure is within a small margin of the total Capital Programme. When expenditure up to the year end has been included Basic and Supplementary Approvals will be fully utilised, the excess being financed from the Revenue Account. A full report on Capital Expenditure will be presented at the next meeting, together with the final Revenue outturn figures.