Property deals, WMCA hire, Planning fees, Dundee forgery, IR35

Treasury ‘examining’ council property deals
The government is examining whether councils should be allowed to continue investing in property for commercial returns, according to the Times newspaper. An article quoted a Whitehall source as saying: “There’s a lot of concern in the Treasury about this. They are asking ‘What the hell are councils doing buying car showrooms at the other end of the country?’” The article cited figures, compiled by Room151, showing that local authority spending on land and buildings more than doubled last year.

Goldsworthy joins West Midlands Combined Authority
Former MP Julia Goldsworthy is leaving consultancy PwC to join the West Midlands Combined Authority as director of strategy. Goldsworthy, who has also worked as an adviser to HM Treasury, said: “Devolution on the ambitious scale we are seeking will have far reaching implications for the region’s public sector, businesses and individuals. There are exciting opportunities ahead for the West Midlands and I am delighted to have the opportunity to play a part in ensuring we make the most of them.”

LGA calls for planning fees action
Taxpayers face a £1bn bill to cover the cost of planning applications by 2022, according to the Local Government Association. The representative body said that national rules governing the level of fees charged to developers means that councils are prevented from recovering the full costs of processing applications. Martin Tett, LGA housing spokesman, said: “It is wrong for communities to keep being forced to spend hundreds of millions each year to cover the cost of all planning applications.”

Council IT worker ‘forged £1m of invoices’
A former council employee has been convicted of stealing more than £1m by creating false invoices. Edinburgh’s High Court has jailed IT expert Mark Conway, aged 52, for defrauding Dundee City Council of the cash between August 2009 and May last year. He used the cash to pay off gambling debts. A council spokesperson said: “Following the discovery of this crime, Dundee City Council has taken action to prevent a fraud of this type from happening again in the future.”

Councils warned over IR35
Councils need to be wary of results from HMRC software designed to work out the tax status of contractors, according to experts.  Since April, freelancers in the public sector have had their employment status – known as IR35 rules – determined by their employers. Dave Chaplin, chief executive and founder of Contractor Calculator, told website People Management that the system was “wildly inconsistent and unable to determine IR35 status 38 per cent of the time”