Issue details

On 16 November 2023 the Acting Executive Director - Place, utilising authority delegated by full Council, and having considered the outcome of a transparent selection process run by external independent advisors, determined to allocate £1,349,400 of UKSPF for the refurbishment of Macclesfield indoor market comprising £80,000 revenue and £1,269,400 capital, and £495,000 for the project Macc on Foot (£415,000 capital, £80,000 revenue).  Both these capital sums were reflected in the capital programme submitted as part of the MTFS and approved by full Council on 22 February 2024.  Initially they were to be supplemented with £358,200 that was within the Capital Programme as part of Macclesfield Town Centre regeneration capital scheme.

However, mindful of the Council’s financial position with regard to prudential borrowing the projects sought further UK SPF funding to negate the need for Council prudential borrowing.

Consequently, on 13 February 2024 the Acting Executive Director - Place awarded an additional £229,100 of UKSPF to the Macc Indoor Market project, (£50,000 revenue and £179,100 for capital works) and a further £179,100 of UK SPF was awarded to Macc on Foot for capital works (£408,200 across the two projects).  The additional amounts were not fed into the MTFS and Budget papers due to timing constraints with those papers.

This decision is therefore reflecting the awards of 13 February 2024, noting that £21,000 of the £50,000 revenue allocation is also being vired across to capital and is ensuring that the capital programme reflects the correct values. It also allows for the balance of the Macclesfield Town Centre regeneration scheme to be removed from the capital programme.

The alternative to doing this would be that each project would have to value engineer costs out of the budget and there is a risk that some UK SPF funding would be unspent and would be potentially returned to central government.