Surrey roads, LAMS relaunch, Building societies, Barnet contract, Scottish LGPS

Surrey on the road to great savings
A high-tech glue is changing the way Surrey repairs its roads and, the council says,”is set to save taxpayers millions by recycling old roads”. Mixing the flexible glue with discarded tarmac means Surrey no longer needs to rip up roads and start repairs from scratch but can instead create new surfaces from the innovative compound. John Furey, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “This exciting new initiative will improve roads while saving us up to £2 million a year – money we want to spend on improving more roads.

LAMS back on the menu
Lloyds Bank has re-opened LAMS with immediate effect for those local authorities with approval in place by 30 November 2013. Treasury adviser, Capital Asset Services, who partner Lloyds in the scheme, has written to clients this week to inform them of Lloyd’s decision, saying: “We should be able to support planned launches pretty quickly, and first time buyers with a LAMS mortgage should be able to move into their new home before Christmas.” New schemes will be limited to tranches of £1m unless a deed for £2m has already been agreed. LAMS will not be reintroduced in Wales. 

Stable outlook for building societies in 2014 – Fitch
Fitch Ratings has this week published a report on the outlook for UK building societies noting that incremental default risks are stable. A statement from the ratings agency said the call reflects: “progress in improving the management of net interest margins, reducing reliance on wholesale funding, building up liquidity buffers, and closely managing their exposure to riskier commercial and non-prime residential loans.”

Barnet opens up Capita contract online
The London Borough of Barnet has taken the unusual step of posting its latest outsourcing contract with Capita online. The council’s website stated: “As part of the Council’s commitment to transparency, the contract with Capita plc to provide the services that make up the Development and Regulatory Services (DRS) is published here.” Capita, it went on, “has agreed to waive its right to keep confidential much of the information defined in the contract as commercially sensitive and confidential, so that more information is in the public domain.”

Scottish LGPS members vote for new career average scheme
Scottish local authority employers have agreed to a redesigned LGPS which will see them move from a final salary to a career average scheme. The scheme’s accrual rate will increase from 1/60ths to 1/49ths and members will retain their existing ill health and death in service benefits. A so-called 50/50 option has been introduced which allows members to pay 50% of contributions for 50% benefits.