The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services introduced the Treasury Management Annual Report for 2020/21, which set out the key areas of performance during the year.
The Cabinet Member alluded to the major economic factors that had impacted on the UK economy during the 2020/21 financial year, with the COVID-19 pandemic being the main issue, and commended the Council’s prudent approach to borrowing and vigorous assessment of investment opportunities which, coupled with the excellent work of the Treasury Management team, had resulted in the Council outperforming its targets and benchmarks in a number of areas. Key highlights within the report included:
· Total treasury investments held at 31/3/2021 was £210.17m (2019/20: £347.29m);
· Total cash held at 31/3/2021 was £45.19m (2019/20: £6.79m);
· Interest for 2020/21 was £8.8m (2019/20: £8.8m) compared to a budget of £6.5m;
· The Council’s average treasury interest return for 2020/21 was 1.62%, which was 1.31% higher than the average London Peer Group return of 0.31%;
· The Council’s average return on its commercial and property loans was 4.46% for 2020/21 (2019/20: 3.63%);
· Interest payable for 2020/21 totalled £32.8m (2019/20: £34.17m);
· Capitalised interest of £1.5m in 2019/20 and £3.0m in 2020/21 had been transferred to the Investment Reserve;
· The Council borrowed £60.0m of long-term General Fund borrowing in 2020/21 at an average rate of 1.28% and an average duration of 31.7 years;
· The total long-term General Fund borrowing at 31/3/2021 was £600.4m;
· The value of short-term borrowing at 31 March 2021 was £67.5m; and
· Total Council borrowing was £1.16bn at 31 March 2021, within the 2020/21 Operational Boundary limit of £1.25bn and Authorised Borrowing Limit of £1.35bn.
The Assembly resolved to:
(i) Note the Treasury Management Annual Report for 2020/21;
(ii) Note that the Council complied with all 2020/21 treasury management indicators;
(iii) Approve the actual Prudential and Treasury Indicators for 2020/21, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report; and
(iv) Note that the Council borrowed £60.0m from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) in 2020/21.
Cabinet resolved to recommend the Assembly to:
(i) Note the Treasury Management Annual Report for 2020/21;
(ii) Note that the Council complied with all 2020/21 treasury management indicators;
(iii) Approve the actual Prudential and Treasury Indicators for 2020/21, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report; and
(iv) Note that the Council borrowed £60.0m from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) in 2020/21.