Alongside its budget for services (called the revenue budget), the council also has a capital budget. The capital budget is used for building new facilities and maintaining physical infrastructure like buildings and roads.
This budget is not funded by Council Tax; it is funded by:
- Government or external grants
- borrowing money
- selling council assets (like council-owned land) and reinvesting this money in facilities
Although this money is not used for day-to-day services, it does affect the council’s main (revenue) budget. This is because:
- the council must pay interest on any money it borrows
- the council must also set aside money to repay the borrowing
These ongoing costs come from the same budget that pays for everyday services.
The council will continue to invest in building new facilities such as care homes, schools and leisure centres. However, the council will spend less than previous years and the timescales for some of these projects will be longer, so the cost is spread over a longer period to reduce the impact on the service budget.
Next year, the council plans to spend £129.6 million on infrastructure projects. Below is a summary of the plans:
- £35.9 million on schools - this includes school maintenance, new school places, transitioning schools to two-tier (£27.6 million) and special educational needs provision (£2.9 million)
- £10 million on highways works, including resurfacing
- £3 million completing the new leisure centre in Leighton Buzzard
- £2.7 million on new care homes and technology equipment for care
The proposed draft Capital Programme would add around £33.7 million of costs to the council’s revenue budget.
You can read the full draft full capital budget as part of the Executive Committee papers on our website (agenda item 8).