This report reviews the Treasury Management activity which took place during the period from 1^st April 2020 to 31^st March 2021.

Darren Carter, Director of Finance, submitted a report on the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy and Annual Investment Strategy for 2020/21.  The Treasury Management Strategy required an Annual Outturn Report reviewing the Treasury Management activity which had taken place during the year. 

The report stated that the Council had continued to finance capital expenditure through maximising the use of capital receipts, capital grants and internal borrowing. During 2020/21 the Council had taken out a short-term loan of £10m for one month during May 2020 to assist in managing the short-term cashflow position, but no long-term loans (over one year in duration) had been taken out during the year.  The Council had not experienced any significant cashflow difficulties during the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic as although cash inflows had been reduced as a result of income losses, particularly from chargeable services such as car parking and leisure, they were offset by the receipt of additional one-off grant funding from the Government and a slowdown in capital expenditure.  The Council had also kept prudent levels of surplus cash in short-term accessible investments to protect against any unforeseen cashflow issues.

Overall, the Council had under borrowed by £197.051m as at 31 March 2021. As a consequence, the Council had effectively avoided incurring external interest costs in the order of £6.522m during 2020/21, based on the average rate for the existing debt portfolio of 3.31%.  Against the 2020/21 General Fund budget there had been an overall net General Fund underspend of £0.028 million on the Capital Financing budget as reported in the 2020/21 Quarter 4 Performance report to Policy Committee on 12 July 2021.  This budget included interest payable, interest receivable and Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP).

The report confirmed that the Council had not breached any of its treasury management performance indicators during 2020/2021.  The Borrowing and Investment portfolios were appended to the report for further information.

Resolved:     That the Treasury Management Outturn Report for 2020/21 be noted.