Decision details

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to note the positive cash position that had been achieved for the General Fund and HRA to the end of Quarter 1 as detailed in Appendix 1;

(ii)           to note the Common Good financial performance to the end of Quarter 1 as detailed in Appendix 3, specifically the £2m reduction in cash balances due to investment volatility;

(iii)          to note that the General Fund full year forecast position, as detailed in Appendix 2, was expected to show a balanced position overall for 2022/23, based on the assumption that the Scottish Government would fund any increase to the current pay offer made by Cosla and through the other mitigations contained within the report, including the use of one-off funding streams;

(iv)          to note the initial information provided in the report about the fire at Altens East Waste and Recycling Centre and instruct the Chief Officer - Operations and Protective Services to report back to the next meeting of the City Growth and Resources Committee with details of the contractual, financial, and operational implications, including assurance about how the council has mitigated financial exposure;

(v)           to note that the HRA full year forecast position, as detailed in Appendix 2, was on target to achieve the approved budget, making a contribution to HRA reserves for 2022/23;

(vi)          to note that the Council relied on the Integration Joint Board (IJB) achieving a balanced budget, and that it retained reserves in the event of unplanned additional costs arising during the year;

(vii)        to note that the forecast for General Fund capital expenditure was that there would be lower spend than had been budgeted in 2022/23, and for Housing, capital expenditure would be in line with 11% slippage on the programme, as described in Appendix 2;

(viii)       to note that officers had completed the work required to reprofile the capital programmes, following instruction by the City Growth and Resources Committee on 21 June 2022 (Appendix 5);

(ix)          to note that almost all capital projects could be paused, delayed or ultimately cancelled though there would be implications related to such decisions;

(x)           to note that for reprofiling purposes there were projects/programmes within the approved Capital Programmes which had been excluded;

(xi)          to note the legal status of the contracts involved in delivery of the projects as this to an extent dictated the level of flexibility that the Council had in terms of reprofiling, pausing or cancelling projects;

(xii)        to note the General Fund Capital funded projects/programmes recommended for reprofiling shown in Appendix 5 - Table 1, which showed the current budget profile;

(xiii)       to instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to remove the Early Learning & Childcare - St Josephs and Garthdee Link Road projects from the General Fund Capital Programme;

(xiv)       to approve the reprofiled General Fund Capital funded projects/programmes as shown in Appendix 5 - Table 2. Noting the use of the existing contingency in the programme;

(xv)        in light of the best value consideration referred to in the report, to instruct the Chief Officer - Capital to retender the 3-stream Tillydrone Primary School project, and report back to the next appropriate City Growth and Resources Committee;

(xvi)       in light of the best value consideration referred to in the report, to instruct Chief Officer - Capital to pause the four Housing Capital Council-led new build projects as recommended in Appendix 5, to evaluate the actions to be taken, assess best value and where appropriate retender work packages. The outcome of this exercise would be reported to the next appropriate meeting of City Growth and Resource Committee;

(xvii)     to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to enter in discussions with the Scottish Government to acquire the land at Wellington Road and to report back the outcome of those discussions at the next City Growth and Resources Committee;

(xviii)    to instruct the Director of Resources to bring back an Outline Business Case for Queen Street to a future City Growth and Resources Committee meeting, which included design proposals for an Urban Park which included an option that incorporated the demolition of the former Police Scotland building;

(xix)       to agree that Aberdeen City had gone above and beyond and should be proud to have welcomed more than 1,000 Ukrainian citizens to the city since the outbreak of the War in Ukraine. To approve the inclusion of additional budgets to the Housing Capital Programme for improvements to void properties, in support of displaced Ukrainians, subject to funding being confirmed by the Scottish Government. In light of the longer term proposals to accommodate these citizens, to instruct the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to prepare a report on the wider supply of critical services and opportunity for Ukrainian citizens to ensure that sufficient supply was available and Ukrainian citizens had access to good quality living and access to opportunity;

(xx)        to note that the Director of Resources would provide an update to members on the latest position with St Peter’s Roman Catholic Primary School based on the decision to re-tender for the remaining works for Riverbank Primary School.