Landsbanki Payment, New Homes Bonus, Suffolk Councils Team Up, Wales Budget, Council Charging
0Landsbanki pays £21m
Icelandic Bank Landsbanki has paid UK authorities a further £21m. The payment takes the total amount paid by Landsbanki to £225m and according to the Local Government Association all of the £414m deposited with the bank should be recovered. More payments will be made in installments over the next several years.
New Homes Bonus divert slammed
The Local Government Association has criticised the government’s decision to divert New Homes Bonus money to Local Enterprise Partnerships as part of the Local Growth Fund in 2015-16. Said Councillor Mike Jones, chair of the LGA’s environment and housing board: “Councils have already committed income expected from the New Homes Bonus to vital long-term investment projects to pay for local services and support new housing and economic growth. It is hugely disappointing that government fails to recognise that redistributing this money will make it more difficult for councils to keep paying for local services.”
Suffolk works together
Suffolk County Council and seven district and boroughs in the area have agreed to work together to find savings of over £160m to March 2016. The authorities hope that they can further existing sharing arrangements to help tackle a 39% cut they jointly face. New council offices to be shared by Waveney CC and Suffolk should save £3m over ten years.
Wales budget to return to 2004 level
The Welsh Government will have a similar budget in 2017-18 to the one it had in 2004-05, reflecting amounts 14-17% lower than those it had to spend in 2010-11, according to a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies. The report found that while the level of cuts to be implemented by the Welsh Government over the next four years would be uncertain until after the next UK general election, reductions were likely to be between 5% (£800m) and 9% (£1.4bn).
Charging income exceeds CT in one third of district councils
English councils raised £10.2bn from charging for services in 2011-12, according to the Audit Commission. Charging funded 9% of single tier and county councils’ service spend, and 20% of district councils’. It also exceeded council tax income in one in three district councils and one in five London boroughs. The Local Government Association said, however, that councils were working to keep fees and charges low for residents and had seen a real terms reduction in income from the area. “The bigger picture is that the funding system for local government is bust,” said Merrick Cockell.
Buckinghamshire launches care trading company
Buckinghamshire Care, the trading company set up by Bucks County Council to provide adult social care services, will start trading next month. The body will be council-owned, with any profit being reinvested in the authority’s services. Its new chief executive Paul Woodward was chief executive of care charity Sue Ryder for six years.
EIB keeps AAA rating
Fitch has affirmed the European Investment Bank’s long term issuer default rating at AAA with negative outlook. The banks capitalisation has been strengthened by a €10bn cash injection from the European Union members and Fitch said that the EIB had steadily increased balance sheet liquidity over recent years.
