Category Archives: Finance

Brent Council restructuring broadly welcome but questions remain

Posted on March 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

Responding to the publication of proposals to restructure the senior management arrangements at Brent Council, to be discussed on Thursday, Liberal Democrat Leader Paul Lorber said:

These proposals look broadly positive and in line with proposals Liberal Democrats have made at recent budget meetings. It’s curious that Labour councillors are prepared now to support plans for the abolition of the Customer and Community Engagement department which they previously voted against.

However I am not convinced local people will benefit from a new Assistant Chief Executive with a vaguely defined remit costing £100,000 to £150,000 a year.

The report is also notably silent on the process and timetable for the recruitment of a new Chief Executive. This could be a waste of time and money if the council recruits a new Chief Exec who wants a different structure. We will ask questions about this at next week’s meeting.

The proposals, drawn up by Interim Chief Executive Christine Gilber,t are supposed to save up to £900,000 per year (not taking account of any redundancy costs). They reduce the size of the corporate management team from nine directors to five; reduce the number of Assistant Director posts from nineteen to fourteen; introduce a new Assistant Chief Executive post; and reallocate functions including the creation of a new Education, Health and Social Care department.

The full report is available at http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=153&MId=2046.

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Brent Council Pension Fund to avoid tobacco investments

Posted on March 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

Liberal Democrat councillors have welcomed changes by Brent Pension Fund which mean the fund has ruled out direct investment of council employees’ money in tobacco companies.

The decision comes after two-and-a-half years of pressure led by Willesden Green Liberal Democrat councillor Ann Hunter, who first won the backing of Brent Council’s Health Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the move and then persuaded the Pension Fund.

Councillor Hunter said:

I am delighted that the Pension Fund Committee has taken this step. It makes very clear that the pension fund will not invest directly in tobacco. Moreover their fund managers will not invest any part of segregated funds into any company that receive more than half of their income from tobacco.

This is excellent news, and definitely a step in the right direction. I am so glad that councillors and officers on the Pension Fund Committee have listened to us on Health Scrutiny and to other councillors and Brent residents who care about improving the health of the borough.

Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable deaths in Brent. The council plays an important role with Brent Primary Care Trust helping local people stop smoking through the Brent Tobacco Control Strategy. 2,668 people were helped to quit in 2011/12.

The relevant part of the Pension Fund’s new Statement of Investment Principles now reads:

  • The Brent Pension Fund has an overriding fiduciary duty in law to invest Fund monies to achieve the best possible financial return for the Fund consistent with an acceptable level of risk. However, the Fund recognises that companies can enhance their long-term performance and increase their financial returns by adopting positive social, environmental and ethical principles in planning and running their activities. The Fund has delegated to the external investment managers responsibility for taking social, environmental and ethical considerations into account when assessing the financial potential and suitability of investments.
  • Each investment manager is asked to work positively with companies to promote forward-looking social, environmental and ethical standards. This should not, however, deflect from the primary objective of achieving the best possible financial return for the Fund, in accordance with the Fund’s fiduciary duty.
  • In line with the above, fund managers are instructed not to invest segregated elements of their portfolio in companies that generate over half of their income from tobacco products, due to the risk that tobacco companies may face large liabilities from outstanding court actions.

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Posted in Finance, Health

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Lib Dem budget for Brent listens to residents

Posted on February 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

Brent Liberal Democrats last night set out budget proposals that listen to local residents’ concerns.

In contrast the Labour Leader called for community involvement in the budget but endorsed proposals which maintain controversial cuts to libraries, street cleaning and school crossing patrols.

The Liberal Democrat Alternative 2013/14 Budget

Libraries

Staff remove boxes from Kensal Rise library

Labour’s library closure programme including striping Kensal Rise library of its books and computers in the middle of the night

Labour closed half of Brent’s libraries, broke promises to work with volunteer library campaigners, engineered the transfer of Cricklewood  and Kensal Rise libraries to All Souls College, sold off Tokyngton library and blocked the return of library services to Barham Park and Preston

Liberal Democrats will invest an additional £400,000 per year to support library volunteers across the borough, including access to professional support, catalogues etc. and to finance plans to re-open closed libraries

Parking

Labour has hiked parking charges – twice in four months for parking permit holders – introduced parking meters in roads where they didn’t previously operate and is hitting older and poorer residents without internet access especially hard with punitive parking fees.

Liberal Democrats will freeze April’s planned parking charge increases, reverse January’s parking permit increase and keep daily visitor parking permits at £1.

We will start a wide-range review of parking tariffs and penalty charges in Brent to ensure they meet the needs of residents and businesses in Brent – ending the current policies which discourage people from shopping locally.

Labour’s proposal for a 20p rate for the first 15 minutes at parking meters is a welcome acknowledgement of the problems caused by their parking policies, but does nothing to help parking permit holders.

Highways repairs

Labour has failed to maintain our roads and (especially) our pavements to the standards that local residents expect.

Liberal Democrats will invest an extra £500,000 over and above the administration’s budget proposals to mend potholes and resurface pavements, keeping pedestrians safer and reducing damage to Brent residents’ cars.
 
Street cleaning

Big pile of bags of rubbish on the pavement

Labour’s cuts to street cleaning mean that rubbish is piling up on our streets

Labour has cut street sweeping and graffiti removal, leaving Brent’s streets dirtier than ever and local people fed up with the build-up of rubbish on their streets.

Liberal Democrats will invest £250,000 to clear the backlog of Labour’s rubbish and pilot more effective ways of working.

CCTV

Labour has failed to provide funding for the renewal and extension of Brent’s CCTV system. Liberal Democrats will restart the CCTV installation programme for local High Streets and hotspots (costing £135,000).

Festivals

Labour removed the Navratri grant and abolished the budget for Christmas, Eid, St Patrick’s and other local cultural festivals and celebrations.

Liberal Democrats will reinstate £115,000 funding for festivals which bring the community together.

Tree planting

Liberal Democrats will invest in a £50,000 tree planting programme, making our streets and public places greener and healthier.

School Crossing Patrols

Labour has let down parents and children by stealthily removing school crossing patrols from our schools.

Liberal Democrats will reverse Labour’s cuts and recruit new school crossing patrols when vacancies occur at an annual cost of £60,000.

Total additional spending: £1,797,000 (£862,000 recurrent, £935,000 one-off) 

The Liberal Democrat budget proposals are funded by:

Reduction in size of Corporate Management Team
The move into the Civic Centre, reduction in the overall size of the council and changes in role means that the Corporate Management Team can be slimmed down, saving £518,000.

Restructure of Customer and Community Engagement Directorate
Savings from ward working admin (while maintaining the project budget), communications, the festivals unit and mayoral support will save £344,000.

To fund one-off expenditure the Lib Dems will reduce the size of three very large uncommitted earmarked reserves by £935,000 (transformation reserve: £450,000, redundancy and restructuring reserve: £420,000, remuneration strategy reserve: £65,000). This will leave £4.25m in these reserves plus over £12m in the general reserve to cover contingencies and risks.

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Posted in Clean Streets, Environment, Finance, Libraries

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Brent councillors and residents still in the dark over payoffs

Posted on February 4, 2013 | Leave a comment
Head and shoulders photo of Councillor Daniel Brown

Councillor Daniel Brown believes local residents should know how Labour is spending their money

This week marks 150 days since the mysterious departure of former long-serving Chief Executive Gareth Daniel.

His departure was swiftly followed by that of Director of Finance, Clive Heaphy and then by Genny Renard, Head of Community Safety Partnership Unit just before Christmas.

Despite the fact that nearly five months have passed since Mr Daniel’s departure, Brent councillors and residents are still in the dark about:

  • Why Mr Daniel left so suddenly
  • The reasons why Mr Heaphy and Ms Renard left
  • The cost of any payoffs granted by Labour to the officers when they departed.
  • When a new permanent Chief Executive and Director of Finance will be appointed
  • The cost of employing an interim Chief Executive, Christine Gilbert

According to the Audit Commission the average cost of severance payments for Chief Executives was 1.8 times the chief executive’s annual basic salary but in some cases it was more than three times the basic salary. For Gareth Daniel this would equate to between approximately £369,000 and £600,000.

Clive Heaphy was on a salary of approximately £130,000 when he departed. A similar ratio would lead to a total bill of up to £1m.

Alperton Liberal Democrat councillor Daniel Brown asked Muhammed Butt, the Labour Leader of the Council, at the last council meeting to explain what he was doing to recruit a permanent Chief Executive. Cllr Butt was unable to give any details.

Cllr Butt’s refusal to level with local people and explain the cost of the Chief Executive’s departure is an insult to local people. It is their money he is spending.

Inevitably residents are going to draw the conclusion that he and his fellow councillors have something they want to hide. In a democracy the fact that something may be embarrassing to the Leader is no reason to keep it a secret.

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Mark Cummins welcomes slashed audit fees

Posted on February 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Brent Council will pay 40% less for its audit this year after the Coalition government intervened to reduce the costs of the audit process.

Brondesbury Park councillor Mark Cummins, who has many year’s experience as a member of Brent Council’s Audit Committee, has welcomed the reduction.

The audit fee for 2012/13 is set to be £324,020 compared to £543,538 in 2011/12. This is a drop of 40% which saves £220,000 of public money.

Councillor Cummins said:

It is vital that we have a strong audit process to identify fraud, errors and miss-spending. However under the Labour government the amount of pointless box-ticking increased dramatically, leading to an increase in audit fees.

At a time when local councils were having to become more efficient by 2 per cent each year, the Audit Commission increased its fees every single year.

Thanks to the Coalition government’s reforms Brent Council now has £220,000 more to spend on local services at a time when every penny counts.

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Brent Council comes clean and admits streets are getting dirtier

Posted on December 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

Brent Council has been forced to admit that Labour’s reforms to street-cleaning and waste collection in Brent have failed, and that local streets are dirtier than ever.

Councillor Alison Hopkins and Brent Liberal Democrats are campaigning to clean up Labour’s dirty streets


In a report to the One Council Overview and Scrutiny committee, to be considered by councillors next Wednesday (5 December), council officials admit:

  • “As part of the review, the street cleansing contract cost was reduced by £2m in October 2011. Cleansing arrangements are now much reduced.” (para. 3.2)
  • “There has been an increase in reported fly-tipping this year. The three main contributing factors are likely to be:
    • The council’s new household waste collection arrangements that restrict the volume of waste that is collected. This has led to residents dumping excess / uncollected waste on footpaths and near litter bins in some areas.
    • Reduced frequency of street cleansing. Small fly-tips are cleared by the regular sweeping operation. A less frequent sweep means items are left for longer and are more likely to be reported.
    • Increased commercial waste disposal charges. This has led to dumping by unscrupulous traders who wish to avoid these charges.” (para. 3.3)

In addition the council is only recycling 45% of the waste it collects compared to its target of 60%, which council officers estimate could cost Brent residents up to £1.4m.

Liberal Democrat councillor Alison Hopkins has been actively campaigning to tackle fly-tipping in Dollis Hill. She helped council officials to identify potential fly-tippers. Commenting on the council’s admission she said:

Liberal Democrat councillors said from the start that Labour’s street cleaning cuts were the wrong thing to do.

The council taxpayer is picking up the bill for extra fly-tipping costs because Brent Council is failing to pick up the rubbish from our streets.

It’s time Labour put right its mistake, before the litter problem in Brent becomes unmanageable.

Alperton councillor Daniel Brown highlighted the current problems with leaf clearance in streets such as Sherrick Green Road, Melrose Avenue and Chichele Road at last week’s full council meeting (Monday 19 November). He asked Labour Executive members to agree it was a mistake to abandon special leaf-fall collections each Autumn.

In response Labour Councillor Jim Moher, lead member for Highways and transportation, suggested that residents should clear up their own leaves. Cllr Brown said:

Residents will not be impressed by the implication that autumn leaf-fall is in some way their responsibility. It should not be too much to ask that the council keeps our pavements clean and safe – but even this simple task appears to be beyond the current Labour administration.

The following day Brent Council posted a statement on its website admitting that the reduced leaf clearance programme means it will take weeks to deal with the fallen leaves.

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Posted in Clean Streets, Environment, Finance, Labour Failure

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