Issue - meetings

c)         Corporate Investment Strategy

Introduced by the 2018 edition of the Government’s Guidance on Local Government Investments, the Corporate Investment Strategy focused on investments made for service purposes and commercial reasons rather than those made for treasury management.

The Investment Strategy contained:-

•           Loans and shares for service.

•           Property held for investment purposes.

•           Loan commitments and financial guarantees.

•           Investment indicators.

The Council’s Commercial Investments were:-

•           Property - the Council invested in local, commercial and residential property with the intention of making a profit that would be spent on local public services.

(The Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government, defines property to be an investment if it is held primarily or partially to generate a profit).

Service Investments:-

•           Loans - the Council lent money to support local public services and to stimulate local economic growth.

•           Shares - the Council invested in the shares of Dragonfly Development Limited.

In response to a Member’s query regarding support recharges, the Head of Finance & Resources advised that these were in relation to back office staff such as Finance, Payroll and Human Resources.  The cost of these services were charged to all other departments based on how many staff those departments had.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance & Resources added that monies in the Transformation Reserve had been used to fund capital projects rather than borrowing money at additional cost to the Council.

Members thanked the Head of Finance & Resources for her presentation.

Moved by Councillor Tom Munro and seconded by Councillor David Downes

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The Head of Finance & Resources and Section 151 Officer left the meeting.