Rutland Losses, Coventry LEP, Inefficient Websites, Derbyshire Mortgage Scheme, Housing Fraud

Rutland to be loss-making within three years
The deputy leader of Rutland County Council has said that the authority could become loss-making within three years. Talking about the council’s proposed budget Cllr King said that savings would be made in adult social care, street lighting, staff transport, road repairs and IT among other things but that: “Despite additional cuts this council may well within a matter of three years find itself in a situation where it will be losing £1m a year.”

Coventry to release LEP money
The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership has chosen Coventry City Council to oversee allocation of £38m in government funding that it has secured. The LEP has £24.4m from the Regional Growth Fund, £12.8m from Growing Places and £625,000 of LEP core funding. Coventry has been chosen as the accountable body for the money so that the funds can be released to help stimulate the local economy.

Dorset hopeful of more Icelandic money
Dorset County Council is still hoping to recover a total of 90% of the £13.3m it had with Icelandic bank Heritage, having reclaimed £10.2m. The council had another £15.5m with Landsbanki and has recovered £7.338m to date, it expects to get the full amount back. Of the total amount, 60% has thus far been recovered, according to the council’s CFO Paul Kent.

Councils lose money through websites
Local authorities should be making more of their websites to help save money, according to the Society of IT Management, which has just surveyed all 433 UK councils. Badly written content and poor software integration means that councils spend more time answering resident queries by phone or in person, when they should be able to deal with them online. The Better Connected 2013 survey was conducted by reviewers using a 225-point questionnaire. It found large variety in the ease of use of council websites.

Mortgage scheme for Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Council has launched a mortgage scheme with LloydsTSB. First time buyers who meet the scheme’s criteria and have a 5% deposit will be able to access a preferential mortgage rate. The council expects to support at least 58 mortgagees in the purchase of their first home, with a maximum loan value of £142,500.

Gravesham pilots housing fraud technology
Gravesham Borough Council is working with Fujitsu to pilot technology for identifying housing fraud. The Social Housing Analytics technology matches data to find out where the council is being defrauded. It has so far identified more than 75 properties leading to council intervention from repossession to re-housing.

NELC and Wakefield manage fleets
North East Lincolnshire and Wakefield councils are to work together to save money on council-owned vehicles. Wakefield has already done work on vehicle efficiency management and will help North East Lincolnshire find savings.