South Lanarkshire Council has announced the resumption of a number of projects which were delayed due to the impact of Covid-19.
Incomplete projects from last year have resulted in an underspend of £7 million.
However, these have now transferred to plans for the year 2021/22, with expected completion dates now published.
The progression of these projects originally scheduled during 2020/21 was held up due to ongoing lockdowns.
The council’s Capital Programme report updates committee members on the progress of projects from the period April 2020 to January 2021.
Removing the budget and costs associated with Covid-19, the current estimates from Housing and Technical Resources suggest an outturn of £65.7 m to be spent by South Lanarkshire Council.
Against the budget of £72.757m –which excludes the budget of £7.89m for Covid-19 – this outturn means an underspend across Resources of £7m and relates mainly to projects within Community and Enterprise Resources (£2.6 m), Education Resources (£2.3m), Housing and Technical resources (£1.5m), Finance and Corporate Resources (£400,000) and Social Work Resources (£200,000). Projects delayed include extension to cemeteries and remedial work to memorial headstones which is now set to be completed throughout 2021/22.
Refurbishments to housing and technical resources for the council will be carried out throughout 2021/22.
With timing being the main reason behind the underspend, it will now come into consideration for the budget for 2021/22.
However, these underspends have been partially offset by a few project overspends predicted this financial year.
The outturn of £65.7m is a decrease of £1.3m compared to the position last reported.
The decrease in outturn mainly reflects revised time scales on a number of projects.
The projects include external works at Springhall Community Facility (£150,000) and work being completed at Lightburn Early Learning Centre (£100,000).
