Lucy Frazer, moving to “Culture”  becomes the 14th housing minister to leave the post since the Conservatives came back to power in 2010, and the fifth in the past 12 months. Good job there’s no housing crisis. Sports and TV are much more fun, to be fair.

Her replacement has yet to be named.

(From Politico)

“Ministers already waste billions each year hiring consultants to tell them how to do their jobs, so who knows what that bill will look like when these controls are removed. To make this change at any time would be inexplicable, but during the worst cost of living crisis for decades, it is downright indefensible.” The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden.

Evidence of an out of touch government that has lost its way and run out of ideas – Owl

Jessica Elgot www.theguardian.com 

Ministers have quietly dropped restrictions on spending controls, allowing Whitehall departments to potentially spend millions more on external consultants.

The limits were introduced under David Cameron in 2011, requiring central authorisation if contracts with firms such as Deloitte or KPMG lasted more than nine months or exceeded £20,000. The value of the contracts has been rising – with the limit earlier this year set at £600,000.

But now those spending limits have been cancelled altogether, paving the way for department to spend millions more of taxpayers’ money on external advice.

Labour said the change was “simply staggering” and it was indefensible it had been made during a cost of living crisis when government purse strings were being tightened in other areas of public spending.

The Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin and the chief secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, wrote to departments this month ending restrictions on consultancy “effective 31 January 2023 in line with the agreed lifting of burdens [and] realignment of focus and impact of Cabinet Office spend controls”.

The update concluded that “following workshops during January on an operational level, the removal of the controls is welcomed”.

The move was not announced, but changed on the guidance page of the Cabinet Office website, which said the spending controls on “consultancy and professional services” had ceased as a requirement. All government contracts worth more than £20m still require authorisation centrally.

The Cabinet Office says management consultant advice will be “time limited” and likely to be “related to business change or transformation”, and that the individuals employed on a consultancy basis “will operate outside of the client organisation’s structure and staffing establishment”.

Spending on outside consultants has soared in recent years, although some additional spending was connected to Covid. The UK public sector awarded £2.8bn of consulting contracts in 2022, according to data from the contract analysts Tussell Ltd in the FT last week. That figure was up 75% on 2019.

Deloitte was awarded contracts worth £278m in 2022, more than any other consultancy, though spending was down on levels during the UK height of the pandemic.

Others in the “big four” accountancy firms were also awarded millions in contracts, including £152m for PwC and £101m for EY. KPMG had withdrawn from bidding for work because of a series of scandals reported last year, but was still awarded contracts worth £12m.

The shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden, said: “It is simply staggering that a government which has crashed the economy, crippled the finances of millions of households, and brought our NHS to breaking point, has decided now is the time to loosen the Whitehall purse strings when it comes to hiring outside consultants.

“Ministers already waste billions each year hiring consultants to tell them how to do their jobs, so who knows what that bill will look like when these controls are removed. To make this change at any time would be inexplicable, but during the worst cost of living crisis for decades, it is downright indefensible.”

The Financial Times reported last month that the government’s in-house consultancy hub was being scrapped by the end of January because government departments continued to prefer hiring support from major outside consultancy firms.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to improving efficiency and reducing consultancy spend across government.

“The recent changes removed a number of administrative processes and the Cabinet Office will continue to assess data on departments’ consultancy spend.”

So obviously pressing on with a business park in Sidford is exactly what we need! – Owl

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com 

Exeter Science Park has appointed global property consultancy JLL as marketing agents to try and find tenants for its empty units. They will also be asked to see if there are any companies who would move in, if a purpose built unit was provided.

The Science Park is one of the South West’s leading centres for businesses involved in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM). All current occupiers are involved in research, affiliated with higher education, or are tech related companies.

But there are several units that are current empty. As a result, JLL have been asked to help to try and let the available floor space and also identify occupiers who require build-to-suit options on its development land

Tim Western, Lead Director in the Exeter office of JLL said: ‘We are delighted to have been formally appointed by Exeter Science Park to help deliver further growth. The Park is a vital part of the region’s infrastructure and already consists of high quality, modern space in a well-connected and highly secure environment.’

As well as offices, laboratory space and amenity facilities, the Science Park offers innovation support and access to a network of like-minded individuals and leading institutions. If you are a growing STEMM business and interested in leasing space in the innovative Exeter Science Park, you can contact Tim Western tim.western@jll.com or Katie Fowler katie.fowler@jll.com at JLL or visit property.jll.co.uk.

Looks like speculating with council tax payers money to Owl

Richard Whitehouse www.cornwalllive.com

Cornwall Council has explained why it paid Virgin Orbit more than £1 million last month after the company used Spaceport Cornwall for its first European launch. While Cosmic Girl successfully took off from Newquay last month the mission ended in failure due to an anomaly in the LauncherOne rocket system which was carrying nine satellites to send into orbit.

Since the event there has been speculation about how it was paid for and how much public money was spent on the launch from Cornwall Airport Newquay. At a meeting of full council last week, Independent councillor Julian German asked Conservative Cabinet member Louis Gardner if Virgin Orbit had been paid by Cornwall Council for the launch.

Cllr Gardner, Cabinet member for the economy, was unequivocal in his response stating: “Virgin Orbit were not paid by this council to do the first launch.” The launch event saw hundreds gather to watch the modified 747 take off with the Launcher One rocket under its wing, which did launch from the plane over the Atlantic but failed to reach orbit.

However, on the council’s contract register there is a contract with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit worth £1,163,102. This contract, originally awarded in May 2021, actually started on January 18 – eight days after the launch – and finishes on March 31.

The contract listing explains this “relates to Virgin Orbit UK Limited, a named core team party within the UK Space Agency Grant Funding Agreement identified to provide specialist services related to horizontal launch system handling and operations. Virgin Orbit have specialist engineering and technical knowledge related to the design, implementation and operation of the spaceport, expertise that is critical to the successful delivery of the spaceport programme”.

Speaking after the meeting Cllr Gardner said: “Cllr German asked me if we paid Virgin for the launch. That answer was no and it remains no. We didn’t pay for the launch.

“We do have a commercial agreement with Virgin and we pay for some things and Virgin pays for things in return. What we have paid Virgin for is assistance in establishing the licence for the Spaceport. They helped us with the licencing and helped with some of the ground operations. Those things remain in place for perpetuity.”

Cllr Gardner admitted that it was a “complex” arrangement but was adamant that the council had not paid Sir Richard’s firm for the launch itself. He also added that while the contract is with Cornwall Council and paid for by the council “the vast majority of funding” came from the UK Space Agency and other Government departments.

He added: “Cornwall Council has focused its investment in the Spaceport around the operations linked with the airport and the new operations facilities which have been provided as a result.”

The government will allow three local authorities, which all have financial difficulties, to raise council tax above the referendum limit, by up to 15%. 

How close to the brink is DCC? – Owl

Kwame Boakye www.lgcplus.com

The final local government financial settlement 2023-24 was published this afternoon and it confirmed that Thurrock Council and Slough BC had been successful in their requests to raise council tax by an additional 5%. [i.e. 10%]

Croydon LBC will be able to raise council tax by an additional 10% with the government revealing that due to “exceptional circumstance” and “unprecedented scale of financial deficits in each council” ministers had agreed to their requests. [i.e 15%]

Today the government said: “Given the exceptional circumstance in these council and unprecedented scale of financial deficits in each council, government has agreed to the requests.”

Thurrock issued a section 114 notice last year and has a funding gap of £469m. Essex CC has been appointed as commissioner to oversee its finances.

Croydon also issued a Section 114 notice in November 2022, effectively declaring bankruptcy, due to a £130m black hole in the following year’s budget. This was the third time in which the council declared bankruptcy in the last two years.

Meanwhile, budget papers published last year showed that Slough BC needs almost £0.5bn support from the government to achieve financial sustainability following years of “recklessness” in the management of its affairs.