“… Routine road maintenance budgets have fallen from £1.1 billion in 2009/10 to around £701 million in 2017/18, the LGA said.
This budget is used to fund expenses such as minor road repairs, cleaning drains and fixing street lighting.
The LGA estimated that the reduction could have covered the cost of repairing 7.8 million potholes. …”
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/potholes-uk-roads_uk_5d2038b3e4b0f312568414d2?guccounter=1
A different kind of local politician, now an MEP, Magid Magid, Green forner mayor of Sheffield, has a refreshing view on not being controlled by council officers! If only other councillors could follow his lead!
“… Magid studied aquatic zoology, ran a digital marketing business and worked for the homelessness charity Shelter before getting involved in politics, motivated by the rise of Ukip in the 2014 European elections.
Within four years, he was being sworn in as lord mayor of Sheffield to the tune of the Imperial March from Star Wars and the Superman theme tune, as the Sheffield Star reported. He later made headlines by stating he would ban “wasteman” Donald Trump from the city – a measure not within his powers.
His one-year tenure was not uncontroversial and he chafed at what he describes as the local council’s attempts to control his diary and messaging. “They wanted to control every aspect of everything especially when they realised the amount of engagement and traction I was getting.”
The new MEP does not resile from “unapologetically being myself”, saying: “if you are trying to be everyone’s cup of tea you might as well be a mug”.
“Theresa May wants to do things ‘properly’ and will limit the roster to a few names who have put in genuine public service.
The Prime Minister is planning a scaled-back resignation honours list which will reward a small group of people for public service and stand in contrast to her predecessor’s controversial gongs for cronies.
David Cameron was criticised for handing out 46 knighthoods and honours, as well as 13 peerages, to his aides, donors and political allies when he stood down three years ago. …”
“Ministers ‘fail to measure impact’ of regional funds and local enterprise partnerships:
The government has made “no effort” to measure the impact made by organisations given £12 billion of public money to encourage regional growth, MPs have said.
England’s 38 local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) are run by boards “not representative of their local areas” that lack “scrutiny and accountability” for spending decisions, the public accounts committee said.
LEPs are voluntary partnerships between business leaders, academics and the public sector designed to give more power to regional decision makers to drive growth in their areas. They are supposed to tackle skills shortages, provide small business support and improve infrastructure and transport policy.
However, the spending watchdog said that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which is supposed to oversee the partnerships, had not properly tracked the use of the funds the organisations were given. This is because the department does not evaluate the performance of the Local Growth Fund, the funding pot that the partnerships rely on.
A report published today concludes that the government “has made no effort to evaluate the value for money of nearly £12 billion in public funding, nor does it have robust plans to do so”. It receives quarterly performance data from LEPs, but value has not been measured.
LEPs are also blighted by overlapping geographical boundaries, which “dilutes accountability and responsibility”, while a lack of capacity within the organisations has caused them to underspend their funding allocations by more than £1 billion over the past three years. This called into question their ability to deliver complex projects, the committee said.
Concerns were also raised at a lack of expected private sector funding that was supposed to boost the impact of the partnerships.
Concerns were previously raised that a lack of oversight had given rise at some partnerships to secretive cultures, misuse of funds and cronyism.
The government asked the local partnerships to improve local scrutiny of investment decisions and the public accounts committee said that there had been improvements. However, it said there was “still a long way to go for all LEPs to reach the rigorous standards we expect”.
The government told the committee that enterprise partnerships “are not resourced sufficiently to respond to high levels of scrutiny and, as such, the department needs to prioritise what it asks LEPs to commit to”.
Meg Hillier, committee chairwoman, said: “LEPs are supposed to be an engine room of local economic growth but have been dogged by a lack of accountability and there is little evidence that they have levered in the promised private sector funds.”
A ministry spokesman said: “We continue to work with LEPs across England to further improve standards and ensure value for money.”
Source: The Times, pay wall
“The chief executive of Persimmon has refused to deny that the housebuilder paid to take control of a Facebook group dedicated to complaints about the company before shutting it down,
The Times revealed last week that Persimmon had acquired the administration rights to the “Persimmon Homes Unhappy Customers” group, which had almost 14,000 members. It subsequently shut down the group, deleting years’ of customer posts sharing problems with their homes.
Outraged group members have speculated on other Facebook groups dedicated to complaints that the housebuilder “paid off” the administrator of the group, whose identity is not public.
Facebook does not allow the sale of administrative rights to groups created by users so a payment would have been a breach of the website’s rules.
Dave Jenkinson, chief executive of Persimmon, confirmed yesterday that it had acquired the administration rights to the group but would not say whether it had paid for them. “That’s a private agreement between us and the administrator and that’s not something I am prepared to discuss,” he said.
The FTSE 100-listed builder, which is based in York, has a market capitalisation of more than £6 billion. In February it became the first British housebuilder to report an annual profit of more than £1 billion. It sold 16,449 homes last year, about half of which went to first-time buyers using the Help to Buy scheme, which is designed to boost home ownership. Since Help to Buy was introduced Persimmon’s profit per house has almost tripled, from £22,114 in 2012 to £60,219 in 2018.
The move to shut down the Facebook group has produced claims from customers that it is trying to censor criticism of the company, which is working to improve its build quality and customer service after criticism by ministers.
James Allan, 23, a planning officer at East Lothian council who has complained about problems at his one-bedroom Persimmon flat in Edinburgh, said: “They are taking away the voices of people who have had issues. It’s good to see the experiences of others so you know that you are not alone.”
Mr Jenkinson, 51, said Persimmon had been monitoring the group for several months to address customer issues as they arose in posts. However, he said that in the past few weeks activity on the page had become “much more aggressive” and there were “signs of bullying behaviour” towards staff. He also said the company had found, when checking users against its customer database, that most complainants were not Persimmon customers; some were friends of customers, tradesmen or from other organisations. “We’ve done this for our customers, we’ve done this for the right reasons,” he said.
In a trading update, the builder said that revenue in the first half of the year had fallen as a result of selling fewer homes because it was focusing more on customer satisfaction. It sold 7,584 homes in the six months to the end of June, down from 8,072 in the same period last year. Revenue fell by 4.4 per cent to £1.75 billion. The average selling price rose to £216,950 from £215,813. The housebuilder said that it expected its operating margin for the full year to remain stable at a hefty 30.8 per cent.
Persimmon has announced measures to improve its customer satisfaction levels and build quality since The Times revealed in February that the government was reviewing its access to the Help to Buy scheme from 2021 as a result of allegations of poor standards. It is to allow buyers to retain 1.5 per cent of the value of their purchase until faults are fixed. Buyers of new-build homes who report snags within a week of receiving the keys to their property will be able to withhold a portion of the purchase price until any faults are resolved.
Its customer satisfaction rating has improved in recent months, it said. Mr Jenkinson said: “Persimmon is listening carefully to all stakeholders and making the changes needed to position the business for the future, while maintaining a robust trading performance.”
Last night the shares closed down 23½p, or 1.2 per cent, at £19.64.”
Source Te Times, pay wall
Daily Mirror front page today:
The Times today is doing a heart-rending expose of modern slums, slum landlords and the links between these landlirds and donations to the Tory party.
There is a heart-breaking story of one such young mother living with her sick and asthmatic 6 year-old young son in the most appalling conditions in a flat in Croydon – placed there by Waltham Forest council, which is 20 miles away. They pay £800 per month for her to exist there – one cannot say “live”. Conditions worthy of the very worst Victorian slums.
In a second article, the newspaper looks further into the types of properties and their landlords and the loopholes that allow them to benefit from these apalling places. They find:
“The developers have exploited a change in planning rules to convert offices into hundreds of flats without any minimum size requirements, prompting claims from experts that they are building “some of the worst homes in Britain” and the “slums of the future”.
Flats costing £800 a month are as small as 14 square meters (150 sq ft), barely bigger than the size of a typical parking space.
Families are living on industrial estates and alongside busy roads, with some residents claiming that mould, noise and anti-social behaviour inside the buildings are damaging their health.”
They then go on to turn the spotlight on three such landlords:
“ Caridon, a property group founded by Mario Carrozzo, receives at least £8 million in housing benefit payments to house hundreds of tenants in flats as small as one-third of the minimum size which would be required under the planning regime;
Joel Weider, the owner of a double glazing company, has converted office space in Leicester, Aylesbury and south London, including flats branded a “hell-hole” by an MP;
A third developer, Anwar Ansari, a former eye surgeon, rents small studio, one and two-bed flats to tenants, including a former office block which has been cited for fire safety breaches.
A change in permitted development rights introduced in 2013 means that developers do not have to adhere to normal planning standards when converting offices into residential housing.”
A further article goes on to look at how much money these “developers” are raking in:
“Caridon
Mario Carrozzo’s sprawling Surrey mansion was once owned by a Premier League footballer and boasts a tennis court, indoor swimming pool and cinema. The £6 million home has three sitting rooms, a gym, spa and games room with bar. It is a far cry from the tiny flats his property empire is built on.
Caridon Group flats are among the smallest in the country, with some measuring 14 square metres (150sq ft). Three of these flats would fit into Mr Carrozzo’s cinema room.
The conversions include Token House in Croydon, where the smallest flats are 15sq m (160sq ft). In one, a sofa and bed fill the flat. The rent is almost £800 a month. “I can open my fridge and make a cup of tea or answer the door while I’m still lying in my bed,” one tenant said. …
Joel Weider
Located in a south London industrial estate with lorries passing near by, a former office building has become home to dozens of people including families. Many of those living in Connect House’s 86 flats, some of which are only 14sq m (150sq ft), have belongings piled up in suitcases and boxes because of a lack of space. Residents have reported breathing problems and rashes which they claim have been caused by damp and mould. The smell of cannabis fills the corridors. A bag with traces of a white powder lies discarded.
The developer behind it is Joel Weider, the owner of a double glazing company who bought the property for £3.1 million in 2015. …
AA Homes
AA Homes and Housing is owned by a Labour donor, Anwar Ansari, 59, and has property holdings worth more than £170 million. Dr Ansari trained in London as an eye surgeon but is now a full-time developer.
AA Homes and Housing is behind at least five big office-to-residential conversions and rents mainly to private tenants. The flats are generally larger than those created by Caridon and Mr Weider but are often still below space guidelines set out by the government.
The company owns a five-storey former NatWest office building in Croydon. A previous owner had sought permission to convert it into 34 flats but Dr Ansari squeezed in an extra 20. In 2017, the fire service issued an enforcement notice over safety concerns including a locked fire escape, poor ventilation and defective fire doors. The company was also fined £20,000 for failing to secure a landlord licence for 36 of the building’s privately rented flats. It is contesting all of these findings.
Dr Ansari and his wife Hina live in a sprawling estate near Caterham, Surrey. …”
Surprised The Sun is running this – it’s more of a Daily Mirror story!
“THE Conservative Party has already sold access to the next Prime Minister for £300,000 – before the leader has even been chosen.
Party officials raised the staggering six-figure sum by selling dinner with the new leader at an exclusive fundraiser on Wednesday.
The auction at the Tory summer party – revealed by the Daily Mail last night – has raised questions about cash for access to the new PM.
Dinner for ten Tory supporters with either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt was offered at the private members’ club bash in West London.
A party source told the paper: “The next prime minister is being pimped out before they’ve even got the job.”
Among the other lots sold off at the posh Hurlingham Club included a signed photo of Boris and David Cameron and tickets to the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix.
Deep-pocketed Tories were also offered a walk with Tory leadership wildcard Rory Stewart – who electrified the contest with his trips around the country.
A wine tour with Education Secretary Damian Hind was also offered for sale – while a donor paid £40,000 for a private champagne party at the London Cabaret Club.
Boris and Mr Hunt were both in attendance at the fundraising do – along with outgoing PM Theresa May and other senior cabinet figures.
OUTRAGE OVER DONATION
It’s not known who successfully bid for the £300k Tory leader’s dinner.
The sale comes after outrage over the wife of one of Vladimir Putin’s former ministers paying for a night out with Mrs May and six female cabinet ministers in May.
Lubov Chernukhin was entertained by the Prime Minister at the five-star Goring Hotel for £135,000.
The banker has donated more than £1million to the Tories in the last seven years alone.
Theresa May defended the donation as Mrs Chernukhin is now a British citizen.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9441101/tory-dinner-boris-johnson-jeremy-hunt/
“More than 200 schools in England are cutting short the school week, or are actively consulting on it, because they cannot afford to educate their pupils for a full five days, according to campaigners.
The figure was revealed on the eve of a demonstration in Westminster by parents and pupils protesting about a crisis in education funding, which means a growing number of children are being sent home at lunchtime every Friday so schools can save money.
Organised by Labour MP Jess Phillips, whose son’s Birmingham primary is among those affected, the march on Friday afternoon will be attended by protesters from Birmingham, Brighton, Hove, Hitchin, Wiltshire, Stockport, Hastings and Leicester.
To drive home the point, the Birmingham Yardley MP will deposit her 10-year-old son Danny and his best friend Morris on the front step of 10 Downing Street, where they will do their schoolwork, as a reminder of the government’s responsibility to care for and educate the nation’s children on a Friday afternoon.
“The whole thing is quite exciting for him,” said Phillips. “He wants to stick up for his school. It’s a brilliant school.”
According to Phillips, 26 schools in Birmingham including her son’s, Kings Heath primary, are either already on a four and a half-day week or are about to introduce it. Not only are pupils losing out on vital hours in school, parents are left scrambling to rearrange work or find childcare and school staff are losing jobs or pay.
“This is not just a Birmingham issue, which is what the government wants to paint it as,” she said. “It’s a problem in Stockport, Oxford, Cambridgeshire, Berkshire – there was one in Theresa May’s [Maidenhead] constituency – Bournemouth, London, Leicester, Sandwell.
“[The education system] is crumbling and nobody cares. The Department for Education just repeatedly wants to blame headteachers, as if the headteacher at my son’s school does not know how to manage money.”
Phillips said it was the responsibility of the government to make sure that every child is in school five days a week. “There are certain fundamentals in public sector services. Our children get free education five days a week. If you break your leg you can have a cast put on it. There are these fundamental principles that we expect from the state. Currently the state cannot deliver it.”
The campaign group Save our Schools (SOS) says children on four and a half-day weeks will lose 20 days of education over the course of a school year. They also point out the “hypocrisy” of government policies which leave schools with little choice but to close early, when parents face heavy fines for taking their child out of school for unauthorised absences.
“Every day, children are taught in crumbling buildings; subjects such as art and music are disappearing from the curriculum; pupils with special education needs are losing vital support and dedicated teaching staff are losing their jobs,” said SOS campaigner Kate Taylor.
“Now schools are being forced to reduce the length of the school week. Parents, teachers and pupils are living with the effects of a government that is not interested in investing in their education.
“If we were to remove our children for one Friday afternoon, let alone every Friday afternoon, we would be committing a criminal offence. It’s quite simple: we want our children to be in school receiving the education they deserve.”
Asked for comment on the protest, the DfE said flexibility over the length of the school week is not new and that schools have long had the choice to structure the school week as they choose. The department also pointed out that Birmingham’s funding was above average and should cover a full week of schooling for each child.
A spokesperson said: “The funding for an average primary class of 28 in Birmingham is £125,000 – above the national average of £115,000 for an equivalent-sized class. These amounts are to cover a full five-day week in term time.”
Grant Thornton are EDDC’s external auditors. They were EDDC’s auditors who found nothing untoward for EDDC after the disgraced ex-Tory councillor Graham Brown affair:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2016/03/06/external-auditors-watchdogs-or-bloodhounds/
“Grant Thornton’s issues have meant that Teignbridge District Council’s accounts will not be audited on time.
The council’s statement of accounts and financial records for the 2018/19 financial year were due to be audited by the external auditors Grant Thornton during June and July.
However, Cllr Alan Connett, portfolio holder for corporate resources, told Monday’s executive committee that the no date for when the audit would take place was yet known.
He said: “We anticipated that the audit would be taking place in July but we have been told by them that they are unable to do so because of pressures at their end. We are organising when the audit will be done but Grant Thornton will be providing a letter of exoneration to us to make it clear it is down to their internal issues and so no-one thinks that the council is to blame.”
Cllr Stephen Purser questioned whether the council would be penalised in any way or would be censured by the government if the accounts were not audited by the July 31 deadline.
In response, Cllr Connett said: “I was concerned about this but I am assured there is no penalty for us. Grant Thornton will provide a ‘letter of comfort’ that sets out their issues and what caused the issues and that the council are not at fault. We are where we are. They are the appointed auditors for us, but we will express our concern about this and hope the letter comes to us soon.”
Grant Thornton have recently faced heavy criticism of their audit practises bakery chain Patisserie Valerie last year admitted to a significant accounting fraud that its external auditors failed to spot, with Grant Thornton remaining under investigation by the UK accounting watchdog over its work for Patisserie Valerie.
The firm also received its largest fine of £3m from the accounting watchdog last August, and was ordered in January to pay a landmark £21m negligence claim in relation to its audit of Assetco, a business that once leased London its fire engines. Its audit of FTSE 250 government contractor Interserve is under scrutiny by the accounting regulator.
The firm at the start of June appointed a new head of audit – Fiona Baldwin – the second time in 12 months an appointment to that role had been made.
An independent review into its accounting operations to improve standards has since been announced by the firm. …”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/council-accounts-audit-delayed-issues-3045592
£77,000 profit per house, adding £30,000-plus to the cost of a new home, poor quality builds, CEO laughing all the way to the bank with his multi-million bonuses – what could possibly go wrong? Answer: nothing goes wrongfor Persimmon, because this government doesn’t just turn a blind eye, it actively encourages this behaviour by putting developers in the planning driving seat (in chauffeur-driven cars)!
“Over half of properties sold by housebuilder Persimmon in the first six months of this year went to first-time buyers, the group’s trading update reveals.
The group sold 3,082 homes to first-time buyers, representing 52 per cent of all private sales for the period.
Speaking to This is Money, a spokesman for Persimmon said ‘around 50 per cent’ of these first-time buyers used Help to Buy schemes to complete their purchase.
While the proportion of purchases being made via Help to Buy adds weight to criticisms that housebuilders are being propped up by the Government schemes, they appear to have done little to help to Persimmon’s overall performance in the first half of the year….
… Persimmon scored the worst figures of all the major house builders in a recent Home Builders Federation new homes survey.
The firm launched a review of its house quality and customer care functions in April. …”
Adrian Chiles in Guardian:
“I was sitting on a tram in Birmingham when a guy tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I was me. “I just had to ask,” he said, “or I’d never have forgiven myself. I would always have wondered.” I felt most unworthy of this level of interest, and told him so.
As we walked down Corporation Street together I asked him what he did for a living. It turned out he was on his way home from work at a local authority, where it was his job to decide whether or not people had the means to pay for their residential care.
As I understand it, if you’ve got nothing, then the council pays. If you’ve got savings, then you pay. Which is obviously fair enough on one hand, but not so fair on the other if you, unlike your neighbour, have saved diligently all your life.
Why should they get the benefit? Where’s the incentive to save at a time when everyone is being told to save more? I shared these incredibly wise thoughts with my new friend. And do you know, his expression suggested that all the above might have been suggested to him before.
“I know,” he said. “Privately, I know. I get all that. But what can I do? It’s my job.”
“It must be so stressful,” I replied.
“It is very stressful,” he agreed.
I rub shoulders and share studios all the time with politicians whose job it is to make difficult decisions as to who gets what. Must be tough, but not half as tough as being one of the many public sector workers who have to make the big calls on the ground, while breathing the same air as those they sit in judgment on.
We shook hands and I asked him what he was up to that evening. “Just telly, I suppose,” he said with a shrug. “It’s a school night.”
“A homeowner plagued with issues in his new-build house said his family was left unsafe when the developer withheld a report condemning the roof.
Joe Tompkinson also said Linden Homes “reneged” on a promise to pay expenses if they moved out during repair work.
He said more than 400 different faults had been identified since his family moved into the house in Abbey Farm in Swindon in December 2017.
Linden has pledged to “attend to any issues” at the property.
Mr Tompkinson claimed he and his family had suffered a catalogue of “extremely poor and negligent” workmanship and botched repairs – including unbolted banisters, sinking bathroom floors, micro-cracks, subsidence and missing brickwork.
Shortly after they moved in, the couple were alerted to problems with the roof when a tile fell off, causing £3,000 of damage to Mrs Tompkinson’s car, and tiles were found to be secured with duct tape.
Mr Tompkinson said in December an independent survey condemned the “unsafe” roof because the majority of tiles were incorrectly secured and soffits built too low.
The father of three said he only discovered this information through a subject access request.
He claimed the “dishonest and obstructive” firm would not release the report or provide a copy to the National House Building Council (NHBC). …
It [Linden Homes] admitted there was “an unusually high number of reported issues” on the development, which has seen more than 40 other homeowners detail problems.
“Following the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in 2017, councils in England must provide support to eligible homeless households, as well as those at risk of becoming homeless within 56 days.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data shows there were 109 households which needed support after applying for help from East Devon District Council between October and December, including 30 families with children.
Of these, 85 were at risk of homelessness, meaning the council had to work with them to prevent them losing their home.
The remaining 24 were already homeless and the council was tasked with helping them to secure accommodation for a period of at least six months.
The households owed support by EDDC included:
– 79 contained a person with at least one high need – 25 people had an illness or physical disability, 39 had a mental health condition, two a learning disability and two were elderly.
– 23 were headed by a single mother and three by a single father.
– 12 were at risk of homelessness because of so-called no-fault evictions, after their landlord issued them with a soon-to-be banned Section 21 notice.
– 12 lost their last home because of domestic abuse.
– One was sleeping rough at the time they applied for help from the council.
– 31 were headed by a person aged 35 to 44 – the most common age group.
Housing charity Shelter has warned that councils are struggling to cope with the volume of people needing support amid a national ‘housing emergency’.
One in five homeless or at risk households in East Devon lost their last secure home because their assured shorthold tenancy – the most common type of private rental contract – ended.
There were also six households made homeless because their social tenancy came to an end while one came from supported housing, which could include refugees or housing for elderly or disabled people.
Of the social tenants, five lost their homes because they were behind on their rent.
An East Devon District Council spokesman said: “East Devon have seen a rise in homelessness, including numbers of rough sleepers and households requiring temporary accommodation, in line with the national picture.
“This increase has been intensified by the lack of availability of suitable accommodation options available to people due to factors including reductions in funding of supported accommodation projects, austerity measures and rises in the rent levels in the private sector leading to affordability issues. These factors all contribute towards added pressure on social housing which is already in short supply whilst facing high levels of demand.
“In order to meet this rise in demand, and to address the additional responsibilities brought in through the Homelessness Reduction Act, changes have been made to the service with the responsibility of assisting people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. …”
… but if you want to know what it was, search for it, because it was so blatantly hot air nonsense that Owl isn’t giving it the extra oxygen of publicity.
Hugo Swire, a Conservative, asks if May has a message for the people of Hong Kong.
May says people were marching peacefully in Hong Kong. It is vital that Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy is respected. She has raised this with Chinese leaders, she says.
Run by family members (Owl seems to recall cousin Barnaby runs the Hong Kong end:
“Swire Group is a Hong Kong- and London-based diversified conglomerate. Many of its core businesses can be found within the Asia Pacific region, where traditionally Swire’s operations have centred on Hong Kong and mainland China. Within Asia, Swire’s activities come under the group’s publicly quoted arm, Swire Pacific Limited.[1] Elsewhere in the world, many businesses are held directly by parent company, John Swire & Sons Limited, in Australia, Papua New Guinea, East Africa, Sri Lanka, the USA and UK. Swire controls a large property empire in Asia – mainly Hong Kong. The current chairman is Barnaby Swire. Taikoo (太古) is the Chinese name of Swire. It serves as the brand name for businesses such as Taikoo Sugar and Taikoo Shing.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swire
Here’s some info about the family:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Swire_family
and here’s some history of the Swire Group in China and Hong Kong:
https://www.scmp.com/business/article/1941580/history-swire-group-hong-kong-began-146-years-ago
Boris says today he is against a sugar tax as there is no evidence it works and may hit “the poor” hardest.
Compare and contrast with his time as Mayor of London:
… Colyton
Tuesday, July 16 – 3pm to 7pm – Colyton Town Hall, Market Place
“The majority of local government finance officers have lost confidence in their future financial positions over the last year, a CIPFA survey has revealed.
Seventy per cent of respondents said they were either slightly less or much less confident in their financial position this year compared to 2018-19, according to the CIPFA’s confidence survey out today.
It also found that 68% said they were either slightly less or much less confident in their ability to deliver services in 2020-21. Sixty-two per cent expressed equal confidence in their financial position for 2019-20 as they had last year, the survey revealed.
CIPFA found that the area of greatest pressure for top tier authorities was children’s social care, with the number of authorities rating it as the biggest pressure rising by six percentage points.
For districts the greatest pressures were housing, cultural services and environmental services.
Rob Whiteman, CIPFA chief executive, said: “Local government is facing greater demand pressures than ever before, with particularly pressures in adults’ and children’s social care and housing. Local authorities also lack certainty about their future financial positions, so it’s unsurprising to see confidence on the decline.
“We have repeatedly pointed out that local government is in need of a sustainable funding solution, but meeting this demand requires more than pennies and pounds. The sector as a whole must come together to address the challenges of effective service delivery.”
CIPFA’s survey received a total of 119 responses from authorities in the UK – 56 top tier authorities, 47 English districts, 12 Scottish authorities, and 4 Welsh authorities.
The LGA yesterday released a survey, two-thirds of councils believed they would not be able to fund statutory services by 2024-25.
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2019/07/cfos-lose-confidence-ability-deliver-services
East Devon Watch 