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Salford City Council - Record of Decision
 
I, Councillor Youd, Lead Member
for Finance, Support Services and Industrial Relations, in
exercise of the powers contained within the Council
Constitution, do
hereby:
 
Approve the virement of £1.111m within the 2023/24 Place
directorate capital programme to provide additional capital
resource for the Buile Hill Mansion refurbishment
project.
 
The Reasons
are:The restoration of Buile Hill Mansion is a City
Mayoral priority with refurbishment works now underway to bring the
mansion into use in 2025.

The estimated cost for all elements of the Buile
Hill Mansion project has increased to £7.3m.  Whilst all efforts will be made to secure external
funding to contribute to the cost, the majority of the cost will be
financed from Council’s own unsupported capital borrowing via
a combination of capital from future years capital borrowing
allocations and/or by identifying existing capital from
Place’s 23/24 capital programme.

Accordingly, as a result of the on-going monitoring
by Place, £1.111m has been identified within the 2023/24
Place capital programme.    
 
Options considered
and rejected were: Additional capital funding is sought
via 2024/25 Council capital budget process over the existing
forecast value for that financial year.
 
Assessment of
risk:Low: If the virement is not agreed, there will
need to be an increase to the 2024/25 Council capital budget for
Buile Hill Mansion refurbishment project. 
 
The source of
funding is:2023/24 Place capital programme.
 
Legal Advice obtained  Submitted by: Tony Hatton, Group
Leader, Commercial Legal and Democratic Services
As
set out in the Council’s Constitution, each directorate is
allocated a budget amount as their share of the annual revenue
budget approved by Council, and capital virements (movement of
budgets between approved capital schemes) are permitted subject to
the approvals being made by authorised persons as set out in
section 7.4 of the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure
Rules. 
For
a virement of the amount requested, it would appear that section
7.4 (g) applies and the approval of lead member for financial and
support services in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer is
required. Section 7.4 reads as follows:

 

The person set out below shall be
entitled to vire across budget heads or budget amounts as
follows:

a)   
a Chief Officer may vire between
budget heads under their control and within their directorates
£150,000 in any financial year.

b)   
the Member(s) of the Cabinet for a
relevant service area(s) may, with the approval of the relevant
Lead Member, vire between budget heads within their control sums of
£150,000 and over, up to £350,000 in any financial
year.

c)   
the City Mayor may vire sums up to
£1,000,000 between the budget amounts of different
directorates in any financial year.

d)   
the Chief Finance officer shall be
responsible for authorising all virements from the central
inflation and contingency provision to other service
budgets.

e)   
any virement must be notified to the
Chief Finance Officer and virements of above £150,000 must be
reported for information to the next meeting of the Overview and
Scrutiny Board.
              
f)  any revenue virement above £
1,000,000 will require the approval of full Council.
              
g) Virements within the capital programme of above £350,000
up to £2,000,000 are subject to the
approval of
the lead member for financial and support services in consultation
with the Chief Financial Officer.
 
Financial Advice
obtained Submitted by Alison Woods,
Commercial Finance Manager
As part of the on-going review of
approved Place capital programme resources for the 2023-24
financial year, unassigned resources to a total of £1.111m
(in general unsupported borrowing) have been
identified.  The unassigned resources
are a direct result in-year of securing external funding, changes
to financing models and a reduced requirement from what was
originally estimated when the 2023/24 capital programme budget was
approved by Full Council in February 2023.
It is proposed that the unallocated
resources are vired to the Buile Hill Mansion refurbishment project
and that along with a further capital bid to the Councils Capital
Programme for 2024/25 (which is subject to full Council approval in
March 2024), the vired resources of £1.111m, will partially
fund the total scheme costs, which have increased to
£7.300m.
 
Procurement Advice
obtained – not
applicable.
 
Climate Change
Implications: N/A
 
The
following documents have been used to assist the decision
process:
Lead Member Report.
 
Contact
Officer:       Ian Thompson,
Principal Programme Manager, Investment and Programmes
                                   
ian.thompson@salford.gov.uk
 
This decision is not subject to
consideration by another Lead Member.
 
The appropriate scrutiny panel
to call-in the decision is the Overview & Scrutiny
Board.
 
 

Signed: Councillor Youd                                
Dated: 20th February 2024  
Lead
Member for Finance, Support Services & Industrial
Relations
 

 
This decision was published on 20th February
2024.
 
This decision will come into force at
4.00 p.m. on 27th February 2024, unless it is called-in, in accordance with the
decision-making process rules.