BIG projects and investment programmes came in under budget for the council last year as the authority underspent on its capital allocation by more than £32 million.

Bracknell Forest Council (BFC) had allocated £95.7 million for its major schemes and investment strategy last year, but only spent £63.5 million of this fund.

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Councillor Peter Heydon, BFC’s finance boss, said: “The underspend reflects how well managed our finances are.

“There are major projects which have been brought in under budget due to robust project management.

“It’s all down to good financial management.”

Binfield Learning Village was one project brought in under budget, saving the council £2.3 million.

BFC’s commercial property investment strategy was another programme where less money was spent than anticipated.

The authority saved £3.1 million because it has already generated the additional funding it needed from its investments, such as this leisure centre in Lincoln.

Cllr John Harrison, another member of the authority’s top team, said: “Just because we have a budget to spend doesn’t necessarily mean we have to spend all of it.

“When we embarked on our commercial property investment strategy I very much cautioned against chasing more and more risky investments, as some councils are doing, in order to spend the money.

“I would rather we kept some of it back if there aren’t investments out there that don’t meet our criteria.”

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The underspend means £24 million will be carried forward to the 2019/2020 budget, with some funding coming from council invest-to-save schemes, such as the replacement LED lighting scheme.

Demolishing Easthampstead House would have set the council back £1 million, but because This Is Projekt moved into the office space, the cost of this plan meant the authority saved money.

BFC received £4.3 million for the sale of Easthampstead Park Conference Centre in the 2018/2019 year – almost one-third of the total received (£15.5m) for capital receipts last year.

The capital financing requirement – which represents BFC’s need to borrow money which can not be sourced from elsewhere – was £217 million by March 2019.

However, documents show the actual level of borrowing at the same point was £100 million.

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Councillors discussed the capital budget report at a meeting on Tuesday, July 23.