Spending Review, Manchester homes, Highlands infrastructure, Buss suggests CIV, GLA rating
0Manchester works on empty homes
Greater Manchester is to receive £8.5m to help restore derelict and empty homes. Manchester town gets £3.5m in funding and Salford £2.53m from the empty homes and clusters of empty homes programme. The Empty Homes Agency found that Salford had an ‘excellent record’ of recovering neglected houses with 807 properties restored between 2011 and 2012.
Highlands approves £1bn blueprint
The Scottish Highlands Council is to spend £1bn over the next year on roads, infrastructure and building new schools. The council hopes that the ten-year plan could unlock further funding sources and create jobs. A landfill site restoration, library and sports facility are among the projects.
Wandsworth finance chief suggests pensions CIV
London local authority pension schemes should look at a collective investment vehicle (CIV) to reduce investment costs and avoid mergers according to Wandsworth’s finance director Chris Buss. He suggested the move in a report to the London borough’s pension committee, noting that the current approach is “not a viable alternative”. Wandsworth should take an active approach to establishing a London-wide CIV using a best of breed selection of funds and managers, said the report.
GLA long-term AA+ rating affirmed
Standard & Poor’s has affirmed the Greater London Authority’s current AA+ long-term issuer credit rating and reported a stable outlook for the authority. The ratings agency said that the local government institutional framework was predictable and supportive and encouraged budgetary stability. London’s economic and political signficance and the GLA’s good liquidity were also cited as reasons for the rating.
Essex wins on SIB
Essex County Council has won the MJ award for innovative finance for its Social Impact Bonds work. The council’s SIB targets vulnerable children and young people on the edge of care and has raised over £3.1m in external investment.
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The Local Government Association has welcomed the Spending Review’s £2bn transfer of NHS money to local authority control. However Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the LGA, said that Government must give full control of funds to local authorities. “Placing Whitehall-imposed conditions on the money will hamper the speed and extent of the changes which are essential to modernizing a system which is collapsing under the weight of our population,” he said.
In other Spending Review news the LGA slammed the £200m cut to council funding to support school improvement. Councillor David Simmonds, the chairman of the children and young people board said: “The Education Services Grant pays for councils to help drive improvements in the classroom, tackle non-attendance and support schools in managing their finances and assets so that buildings are up-to-scratch and equipment is up-to-date. These all have a direct impact on the quality of our children’s education. There will be no easy choices for local authorities to make when deciding which they can no longer afford to pay for.”
In its overall statement on the Spending Review the LGA’s Cockell said that that a “feudal approach” was being taken to local government funding. However he said that the government’s support for Community Budgets showed that it was “behind the necessary rewiring of public services”.
