Scottish voter tax, LGA audit company, Birmingham/Capita payments, Somerset JV debt…
0New Scottish voters chased for arrears
Scottish local authorities are chasing voters who registered to vote in the Scottish independence referendum for unpaid council tax. The vote saw a rush of registrations ahead of the poll, and both Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh councils have announced plans to comb the data to find people who have been avoiding local taxes. The number of citizens registered following the vote now stands at 4.2 million, 97% of those entitled to vote.
LGA launches audit company
The Local Government Association has launched a new company to take on local government audit from the Audit Commission. The company will be chaired by former chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Steve Freer. The new company, named Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA), will manage contracts with private sector audit firms for the external audits of NHS bodies, the police and local authorities, until at least 2017, the LGA said.
Birmingham in JV payments storm
Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council shelled out £23 million to supplier Capita last year through its controversial Service Birmingham joint venture. The payments were condemned by city MP Roger Godsiff, who said the contract is an “egregious misuse of Birmingham citizens’ public funds”. Council deputy leader Ian Ward accepted the figure was too high, but blamed the previous Tory-Liberal Democrat regime which negotiated the deal.
Troubled JV in debt talks
A council joint venture is attempting to renegotiate £50m of debt owed to private partner IBM which arose after Somerset County Council cut some of its ties with the company. Somerset’s move left the vehicle, Southwest One, with £48.8m losses. Southwest One chairman Derek Pretty said in the company’s 2013 report: “IBM does not feel there is any immediate need to restructure this debt.”
Welsh councils warn over services
Welsh councils are warning that funding for local services could fall by £154m following the publication of the draft Welsh Government Budget. The Welsh Local Government Association said that local government faced a shortfall of up to £900m by 2018, and that many services would become unaffordable in the future. Flintshire councillor Aaron Shotton (Flintshire), WLGA Spokesperson for Finance said: “As councils we will have no option but to look seriously at charging for services and different models of delivery. The reality however, is that many of the services that communities take for granted are now at risk, including leisure centres, libraries, community facilities and day centres.”
Lambeth suggests crowdsourcing parks
London Borough of Lambeth has suggested that it could fill a £9m gap in its parks budget by crowdsourcing funding. The council’s draft five year investment plan for parks says that £2m of the £20m plan has already been secured through section 106 agreements and other funding, and that it will contribute £9m. For the rest, the plan said “we will need to jointly explore new avenues for funding, which may range from partnership applications to National Governing Bodies of Sport or charitable foundations, to innovative fundraising techniques such as crowd-sourcing.”
