Preston loans, Brownfield fund, Clydesdale rating, Bucks legal, Lancs waste plans

Preston moves cash reserves into loan fund
Preston City Council is moving £500,000 of its cash reserves into a fund to provide loans to community interest companies or charities in the city. The council is aiming to get a better return on its investment than the money currently makes in bank accounts, in addition to stimulating the city economy. Loan rates will be decided on a case-by-case basis depending on risk identified through business plans.

Ministers unveil brownfield initiative
Councils are being invited to bid for a share of £5m to help deliver local development orders to speed up housebuilding on brownfield land. The government is proposing to make a maximum of 100 awards of £50,000 each covering this financial year and next. The cash will be awarded to sites of 100 dwellings or more, meaning that it could help deliver at least 10,000 homes. The government also announced a separate £200 million loan fund to help create 10 housing zones on brownfield land.

Harrow slams right to buy policy
Harrow Council has branded the right to buy policy ‘utterly ludicrous’ after revealing that it is spending almost £500,000 each year to rent homes it was forced to sell under the initiative. The council said that it leases 35 properties formerly sold to tenants in order to provide temporary accommodation. Housing minister Brandon Lewis said: “Harrow Council is currently sitting on £2.6 million in unspent right to buy receipts for new affordable homes, and it needs to stop moaning and get building.”

Clydesdale Bank rating remains steady
Ratings agency Standard & Poors has affirmed its ‘BBB+/A-2’ counterparty credit rating for Clydesdale Bank, and says the outlook is stable. The rating, it said, reflects the fact that the balance between the bank’s capital and risk profiles remains appropriate. The rating remains unchanged despite a £300 million capital injection from ordinary shares that Clydesdale received from National Australia Bank (NAB) in March 2014.

Councils given green light for legal vehicles
Local authorities in two areas have become the first to be given licenses from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for alternative business structures. The licenses should allow the councils to generate extra income through the stand-alone arrangements. The first ABS to be granted a license was Buckinghamshire Law, made up of legal teams from Buckinghamshire County Council and Milton Keynes Fire Authority. The second is HB Public Law, the shared legal services firm set up by Harrow and Barnet councils in London.

Property body urges council tax revaluation
The British Property Federation has called on all political parties to commit to a council tax revaluation process in the next parliament. The organisation said that additional income generated by reform should be spent on affordable housing near to the areas in which it was raised. Figures from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that 70% of households would see a negligible change to their bill under a revaluation. There would be 17.3% net gainers in the North compared to 22.9% net losers in the South.

Councils dispute waste proposals
Lower tier authorities in Lancashire say they will lose out under plans by the county council to change its funding regime for waste collection. When an existing arrangement expires in 2018, districts will be given recycling credits for collected tonnages. Wyre Borough Council claims that it faces a revenue reduction of more than £980,000, equivalent to a 15% increase in council tax.

LGA calls for clampdown on “no-win-no-fee” claims
Insurance claims for trivial or minor incidents are having a detrimental impact on the provision of council services, according to the Local Government Association. It called this week for the government to clamp down on “no-win-no-fee” compensation claims which it says often arise from lawyers persuading people to take legal action.

New website for Surrey contract opportunities
Public bodies in Surrey will advertise contract opportunities on a new portal. SupplytoSurrey will list contracts being offered by Surrey County Council, Surrey Police, the University of Surrey and the county’s 11 boroughs and districts. The county council alone lets contracts of around £250m a year at present.