• Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Conference
  • Events Calendar
  • Webcast151
  • MOTB
  • Log In
  • Register

Room 151

  • Treasury
  • Technical
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • LGPS
  • Development
  • 151 News
  • Blogs
    • David Green
    • Agent 151
    • Dan Bates
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Sheen
    • James Bevan
    • Steve Bishop
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • David Crum
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O’Donnell
    • Jackie Shute
  • Interviews

Tracy Bingham: 2020, a year best forgotten but also one of learning

0
  • by Guest
  • in Blogs · Funding
  • — 16 Dec, 2020

Photo (cropped) by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Many will rush to erase 2020 from their memories but, writes Tracy Bingham, there were also many lessons about finance teams, strategic planning and leadership.

2020: A year we’d rather all forget or, at least, mostly forget. But “twenty twenty”, when paired with the word “vision” can also be used to describe clarity. This year definitely brought clarity for some.

Reflecting on the past 12 months, there’s a few things that really jump out clearly for me.

Engine room

An obvious one is how much our finance teams are the engine room of local government. My own team has been critical in understanding the impact of Covid-19 and understanding it well enough to be able to join others in calling for additional financial support from government. They’ve enabled the organisation to have a handle on what’s happening and a means by which the cost of decisions have been understood.

Of course, you wouldn’t expect anything less would you? In a crisis, teams need to bring forward their core competencies. Finance has certainly been relied upon. As we head into a new era of recovery, one of the things I’ll be looking to progress is how we pick up where we left off in upskilling our non-finance managers to better grasp and play their full role in managing the organisations finances.

Plans

Another reflection is around our financial strategy and how Covid-19 has influenced our future plans. By the time the pandemic hit we had spent two years working on ways to deal with forthcoming changes in local government funding.

Our resulting programme design was a blend of being more efficient and effective, but mostly acting more commercially and taking more risks to earn better returns. Almost overnight the pandemic exposed the vulnerability of some commercial approaches and it was back to the drawing board we went.

The platform was still burning (and actually burning hotter now) but it really wasn’t the right time for us to be pursuing property deals.

I’m sure many councils, like ourselves, have used the pandemic as an opportunity to take a rain check. In-year deficits caused by the pandemic are a clear enough reason to start to look at spending, without the threats of funding changes on their way.

Comfort blanket

For now, at least, the spending review has given us a vague promise of a comfort blanket for next year: another delay in the rebasing of business rates; an allocation of new homes bonus reward; and further emergency funding and income and collection fund loss support.

It will be interesting to see how council’s respond to the funding changes when they are enacted. The innovation to achieve self-sufficiency has long been encouraged by central government but additional restrictions on the ability to borrow, coupled with a lack of any more assurance over sustainable funding, is going to give CFO’s their biggest headache yet.

Strategy & grants

Going into the New Year, I’m looking forward to developing our refreshed financial strategy—one that takes account of the lessons of this year and balances risk and realism but also maintains the ambition needed for an organisation to make meaningful and lasting change.

One part of my role I’ll be keen to move on from this year is business grants. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a CFO in the country who doesn’t feel the same. It’s been a slog. In the early days, there were league tables, political pressure and complaints from businesses for whom the few breadcrumbs offered through a discretionary scheme (because they weren’t ratepayers) just weren’t enough.

The summer holiday months seemed to bring some calm as the complaints dwindled and the straggler cases made their way through the system. But then along came post-payment reporting and the sheer weight of expectations hit home. Non-finance colleagues thought it was all over (and it probably did look that way from the outside) but typically, some of the real hard graft had only just begun.

Just as we were safely in Tier 1 with no threat of Tier 2 in sight we had started to plan our discretionary schemes ready for any local lockdowns. All was going well until the prime minister made his spooky announcement on Halloween. The weeks that followed were an intense blend of attending live streams and waiting on revised guidance and FAQ documents—proving yet again that central government departments themselves can’t even keep the up the pace!

Lead role

If I’ve learnt anything following this year it’s been that finance will bring to the table some of the best examples of analytical thinking, problem-solving, data analysis, risk analysis and management skills your organisation has. So, they must a lead role in any crisis response, or indeed recovery. But I’ve also learnt that we don’t have many of these heroes and they need nurturing, supporting and forced to take a break.

Tracy Bingham is head of finance and section 151 officer at North West Leicestershire District Council.

Photo (cropped): Anne Nygård on Unsplash

FREE monthly newsletters
Subscribe to Room151 Newsletters

Monthly Online Treasury Briefing
Sign up here with a .gov.uk email address

Room151 Webinars
Visit the Room151 channel

Share

You may also like...

  • Guy Ware: The business rates retention row of ducks Guy Ware: The business rates retention row of ducks 12 Mar, 2018
  • Richard Harbord: The post-holiday horizon is rates retention, restructuring and reserves Richard Harbord: The post-holiday horizon is rates retention, restructuring and reserves 11 Sep, 2017
  • Terry Crossley: LGPS pooling still faces a ‘host’ of issues to resolve Terry Crossley: LGPS pooling still faces a ‘host’ of issues to resolve 24 Jul, 2017
  • Richard Harbord: 2017, a miracle or just horrible? Richard Harbord: 2017, a miracle or just horrible? 4 Jan, 2018

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • Register to become a Room151 user

  • Latest tweets

    Room151 12 hours ago

    All three days of #LATIF & FDs' Summit are available on our webcast channel gotostage.com/channel/room151

    Room151 3 days ago

    FDs’ Summit experts defend councils as MPs label property investment ‘risky’: As Room151’s FDs’ Summit conference explores local government’s investment in commercial property MPs once again lable it a “significant risk to government”. Once again MPs… dlvr.it/Rr7lZx pic.twitter.com/jPvcZjDAS4

    Room151 4 days ago

    Global macro outlook: Virus versus vaccine: Sponsored article: Salman Ahmed argues monetary policy, a global vaccine rollout and fiscal stimulus are likely to put “upward pressure” on bond yields. Much like the latter half of 2020,[...] dlvr.it/Rr60nt pic.twitter.com/qsymBWmKmV

    Room151 4 days ago

    ‘Chasing yield’ not the best strategy as negative rates loom: Recent speculation that the UK may be heading toward negative interest rates prompts questions for treasury officers managing local authority funds at LATIF. Speculation is rife that the UK… dlvr.it/Rr3Mrj pic.twitter.com/wtxYAB20PO

    Room151 6 days ago

    Will new public procurement rules offer the best commercial results?: The government has issued a green paper on reforming procurement rules. Helen Randall and Rebecca Rees examine the proposals and argue they may not go far enough. The Cabinet… dlvr.it/Rqtw6T pic.twitter.com/9GiVTkL08U

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    The vaccine may help settle cash flows but inflation remains a risk: Sponsored article: Lauren Sewell examines the prospects for long-term borrowing as Brexit settles and vaccines are deployed against Covid-19. On the 9th October 2019 Whitehall sent… dlvr.it/RqZXCr pic.twitter.com/PzgOZOGQ0k

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    ESG in liquidity: Sponsored article: Gavin Haywood looks at the integration of ESG in Federated Hermes’ money market funds. Federated Hermes has over 300 public sector clients invested in our AAA rated money[...] dlvr.it/RqZX5f pic.twitter.com/E87sBXsay8

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    New realities of investing cash and liquidity: “What to do now?”: Sponsored article: Brian Buck looks at the “unique challenge” for cash management strategies. As investors assess the ongoing impact of the pandemic on their business, levels of cash and… dlvr.it/RqVbk9 pic.twitter.com/ZElVASmEUV

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Extra finance promised by the government receives a broad welcome: Sponsored article: The financial pressures facing local authorities this year continue to pose challenges for council treasurers. While the launch of the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination… dlvr.it/RqTzTF pic.twitter.com/HCjH0pyHR5

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    A savvy approach to managing your cash: Sponsored article: Caroline Hedges examines the need for active cash management to achieve a higher than average return. Last year saw the already mountainous pile of negative-yielding debt around the[...] dlvr.it/RqTzMK pic.twitter.com/uP0RQYTJLt

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Putting alternatives at the heart of multi-asset portfolios: Sponsored article: Nick Edwardson looks at the assets that provide the “most attractive opportunities”. We believe that asset allocation is the primary driver of investment returns and that the… dlvr.it/RqQ2Qt pic.twitter.com/WLBzvRRRUQ

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Thriving in the pandemic: Avoiding the stragglers: Sponsored article: George Crowdy looks at the sectors providing opportunities for sustainable investment. Throughout much of 2020, we talked about why sustainable investing has thrived in the pandemic,… dlvr.it/RqQ2NQ pic.twitter.com/dxiPWKFsPl

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    The development of CCLA’s mental health benchmark: Sponsored article: Amy Browne examines the importance of investing in mental health in the workplace. We are living through a public health emergency in more ways than one. Physical health[...] dlvr.it/RqQ2Jx pic.twitter.com/o6yRSCX3oF

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Brexit: What the EU trade deal means for the UK economy: Sponsored article: Hetal Mehta looks at the impact of Brexit on economic prospects. Four and a half years after voting to leave the EU, on Christmas Eve the UK finally[...] dlvr.it/RqLBDt pic.twitter.com/No62srfE8h

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Cash dethroned: The quest for liquid yield: Sponsored article: Peter Hunt and George Carne ask how treasury departments can balance the need for yield and liquidity. The massive stimulus and waves of liquidity provided by central banks[...] dlvr.it/RqLBDj pic.twitter.com/05g6Zhu1kU

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Richard Harbord: Delayed “capital determinations” make section 25 opinions a new crunch point: The severe pressure on local government budgets now means section 151 officers confront a tricky call on  whether they can make a judgement on the robustness… dlvr.it/RqLBDV pic.twitter.com/vTAbDKFzkI

    Room151 1 month ago

    PWLB Consultation: Analysis straight from Dickens: Helen Radall and Paul McDermott present a legal examination of the new PWLB borrowing rules as Charles Dickens might have imagined it. Free and easy PWLB (“Marley” to his friends)[...] dlvr.it/RnmwLq pic.twitter.com/yFxcPrQqEG

  • Categories

    • 151 News
    • Agent 151
    • Blogs
    • Chris Buss
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • Dan Bates
    • David Crum
    • David Green
    • Development
    • Forum
    • Funding
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O'Donnell
    • Interviews
    • Jackie Shute
    • James Bevan
    • Jobs
    • LGPSi
    • Mark Finnegan
    • Recent Posts
    • Resources
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Fitzgerald
    • Stephen Sheen
    • Steve Bishop
    • Technical
    • Treasury
    • Uncategorized
  • Archives

    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013
    • 2012
    • 2011
  • Previous story PWLB Consultation: Analysis straight from Dickens
  • Next story Room151’s top stories from a momentous year

© Copyright 2021 Room 151. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies from this website.OK