County’s £600m investment plan needs more detail, say councillors

Councillors have asked for more details to be included in a business plan for Cornwall Council’s £600 million investment programme.

The council is setting up the Cornwall Investment Programme which it wants to use to deliver homes and infrastructure while also generating an income for council services which will make up for a cut in government funding.

Council chief executive Kate Kennally recently stated that the council had to succeed with the investment programme to ensure that council services can continue to be provided in the future.

Eventually the programme could be worth as much as £600 million which the council would look to fund through borrowing.

Under the scheme the council is also looking to set up a development company which would be wholly owned by the council and would be dedicated to running the programme.

A business plan for the programme has now been published and was presented to the council’s economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee.

The committee was asked to review and comment on the document before it goes before the council’s ruling Cabinet on December 18.

However, there were concerns raised by councillors about the lack of detail in the business plan, particularly around the finances of the programme.

Phil Mason, the interim strategic director for economic growth and development, told councillors that the council had already approved £70 million of capital funding for projects in the programme.

He said another £52 million had also been agreed for the council’s housing development programme which was also part of the investment programme.

Mr Mason said there was now a proposal to allocate an extra £140 million which would be used for the programme so the overall commitment to date would be £262 million.

Conservative councillor David Harris called for more details to be provided to councillors. He said: “This is called a business plan but there are no financial details in it. Any meaningful business plan would set out at the outset what it is going to do.”

Independent councillor Tim Dwelly raised concerns about the rate of return that the council is aiming to achieve under the programme.

He highlighted that the council was aiming to get a 3.5% return which would be used to fund council services. However, he said a report was also allowing for a 3% rate for costs for the programme which meant that the overall return would have to be 6.5% – which was not stated in the business plan.

Mr Mason conceded more financial detail could be included and agreed to hold a meeting with councillors next week to look at the issue before the report to Cabinet is drawn up. Cornwall Council’s Cabinet will discuss the business plan when it meets on December 18.

‘This is called a business plan... no financial details in it’

Councillor David Harris