Stephen Hodgson

Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category

At the evening’s Full Council meeting of Charnwood Borough Council members of the council voted to approve the local authority’s budget for the 2010/2011 financial year.

Some of the highlights of the budget are:

• * A 2.0 percent increase in council tax (against a current rate of inflation of 3.5 – 3.7 percent)
• * Sensible planning based on realistic savings across all areas
• * Consciously rebuilding council reserves
• * Significant progress towards building the housing revenue account (HRA) balance, which protects council housing
• * A strategic approach to reducing the cost of running the council whilst maintaing good quality services
• * Keeping costs down, keeping council tax down and delivering value for money, as demanded by people across Charnwood and as promised in the Conservative manifesto since the 2007 local elections

Charnwood Borough Council is now the best-performing district authoritiy in Leicestershire in terms of producing savings. The current Conservative administration has consistently delivered on its promises to run the council more efficiently, to identify cost savings whilst maintaing front-line services and to keep taxes down. All of these things are more important than ever in the current difficult and uncertain economic climate and the Conservative approach to finances locally reflects the national approach if the Conservatives are elected at the General Election: cutting down on waste, tackling the culture of debt and reducing taxes – all of which promote long-term growth and stability for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole.

The full budget is available to read on the council’s website.

Last night was the Voluntary Action Charnwood (VAC) and John Storer House Foundation AGM, which I attended as a guest/observer. The meeting was packed but despite a number of presentations and a few questions from the floor, the meeting was kept to just over an hour long.

The most interesting report for me was the treasurer’s presentation of the VAC and John Storer House Foundation accounts for the year to 31 March 2009. There has been a lot of public indignation expressed by local MP Andy Reed and Labour council group leader Max Hunt about the level of financial support being given to John Storer House by Charnwood Borough Council.

Indeed, Andy Reed wrote on his website:

I only learned this morning that the cuts are proposed for this financial year. With no notice the Borough Council will be cutting money to the most vulnerable.

Talk of cuts for John Storer House Foundation do not make a lot of sense in the context of (i) the historic level of funding (see page 5 of this report to Charnwood Borough Council’s Cabinet on 29 October 2009) or (ii) the accounts that were presented last night. John Storer House Foundation not only managed to provide its services with (significantly smaller) council grants of just £29,000 in the year to 31 March 2006 and £36,000 in the year to 31 March 2007 (the last two years under the previous council administration) but John Storer House Foundation’s accounts show, at 31 March 2009, general reserves of just under £190,000. As the treasurer pointed out at last night’s meeting: John Storer House Foundation has healthy levels of reserves which it has discretion to spend and, if necessary, it will be able to call on those reserves in the current financial year.

Perhaps Andy Reed and Max Hunt should have attended the AGM last night. At the very least I hope they will take just five minutes to speak to the Foundation’s treasurer or read the John Storer House Foundation accounts. Then again, that might not fit their pre-determined agenda of talking about cuts!