UKIB loans Ceredigion £25m for flood infrastructure
Ceredigion County Council has borrowed £25m from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) to support the Aberaeron Coastal Defence project. The £32m project, which is primarily funded by the Welsh Government providing 85% of the finance and Ceredigion County Council contributing the remaining 15%, aims to enhance flood defences in the area.
According to UKIB, this additional funding through the bank’s local authority lending facility will enable the construction of a rock breakwater extending from North Pier, the refurbishment and rebuilding of South Pier’s head, the erection of flood walls, a new flood gate at Pwll Cam inner harbour and improvements to the existing defences on South Beach.
Fay Hammond appointed as GLA’s new CFO
The Greater London Authority (GLA) has appointed Fay Hammond as its new chief finance officer (CFO). She succeeds David Gallie, who left the GLA in July 2023, with Enver Enver serving as the council’s interim CFO since his departure. Hammond is currently the executive director of resources at the London Borough of Enfield and previously held the position of finance manager at Southwark council.
Sutton cashes in on out-of-borough property investment
Sutton Council has sold its Oxfam House office site in Oxford – the headquarters of charity Oxfam – for £37.1m. It is the authority’s only investment property located outside the borough, and reduces the office element of Sutton’s investment property portfolio “significantly”, according to a newly-published annual report. There is no intention to seek a replacement office investment.
Sutton bought the Oxfam House site for £29.9m in November 2016. A sale was previously approved in February 2022, but fell through due to “adverse market conditions”. The authority estimates that it has generated over £1.6m in additional net annual revenue from property investments over £80m that had been made by the end of the 2019/20 financial year.
Hounslow’s borrowing rises £30m as it disposes of ‘poorly performing’ fund
Total borrowing at the London Borough of Hounslow has risen by £30m in the five months ending 31 August 2024, to £578.6m. New borrowing was required to finance the council’s capital expenditure plans. Total treasury investments held by the council rose by £17.4m to £76m in the same period, while total non-treasury rose by £11.4m to £242.4m. The council has also disposed of an investment in Fidelity International’s Multi Asset Income Fund due to “consistent poor performance over recent years”, according to a treasury management mid-year report. The capital base reduced by £3.883m “with no expectation that this would be recovered”.
Dacorum to seek delivery partner for housing-focused investment partnership
Dacorum Borough Council is seeking a partner or partners to work with it in an investment partnership (IP) model to help develop plans and deliver housing and regeneration across a programme of sites. A council report noted that investment partnerships are typically 50:50 partnerships with risk and reward equally shared, but the “precise structure and operational parameters of the Dacorum Investment Partnership will need to be proposed and agreed as part of the partner selection process”. The selection process is expected to conclude in June 2025.
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