News Roundup: Open book accounting, Lancashire’s cash crisis, energy investments, Greenwich’s £400m mandate

Outsourcing bodies calls for caution on open book accounting
The National Outsourcing Association has hinted that the government should reconsider its approach to open book accounting in the public sector. In March 2015, the Cabinet Office published a paper setting out the government’s expectation that all “strategic suppliers” provide it with bi-annual open-book data for contracts over £20m. A new submission to government by the NAO said: “The NOA supports transparency and accountability, but recognises that a delicate balance is required.”

Lancashire ‘set to run out of cash’
Lancashire County Council is set to run out of money for anything other than statutory services by 2018, it has announced. The authority has announced budget proposals aimed at saving £65m over the next two years, resulting in 1,100 job losses. Council leader Jennifer Mein said: “The reality of our financial situation is such that we will have to use the bulk of our reserves just to balance the budget over the next two years. And by 2017/18, we will only just have enough money to pay for our statutory services.”

Government cuts ‘aid renewables investment certainty’
Cuts to the government’s feed-in tariff regime makes energy projects more attractive, according to pension managers. Roy Kuo, head of alternative strategies, told a conference that renewables investments are now more attractive. According to IPE.com, he was backed by Mike Weston, chief executive of the Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PiP), who said: “If you’re saying ‘Well, I can forecast that out five years, and after that it all gets woolly because we might have a new government in five years’ time that changes the policy’, then you inevitably have to put a risk premium on.”

Greenwich looking for alternatives manager
London Borough of Greenwich Pension Fund has launched a tender for a £400m alternatives mandate as part of a drive to diversify its portfolio. The fund wishes to appoint a single manager for a passive equity mandate split between tracking UK and global market cap-weighted indices and a non-market cap-weighted indices.