Money Matters

Visions & Priorities

Brian Riley Local Colour, Money Matters, Political - Local , ,

Corks La FoyerIt is generally accepted that organisations which have a clear vision and values have greater chances of success than those whose vision and values are unclear and blurred.
One of Babergh’s Strategic Priorities is to shape, influence and provide the leadership to enable growth whilst protecting and enhancing our environment. One of the outcomes flowing from this priority is that Babergh is open for business and a champion of the local economy.
So it was with some surprise that when visiting the Council’s office foyer in Corks Lane I saw “Take One” boxes advertising theatre and amusements in Norfolk.
I’m always irked when I see pamphlets in Hadleigh promoting Lavenham and yet I never see any leaflets in Lavenham promoting Hadleigh despite Hadleigh Town Council offering to supply as  much literature as needed.
Babergh has spent considerable time formulating its vision and priorities. If you want to bring the vision and values to life we all have to “live the brand”. It’s part of the why and how you work. You can  see living the brand in any High Street bank where all staff conform to the dress code. It reinforces the values represented by the brand.
So why aren’t Babergh staff living the brand and sharing the values? Why do we promote activities outside of Babergh and even outside Suffolk? Babergh has plenty of attractions and if you are so minded go to http://hadleigh.onesuffolk.net/assets/Tourism/Town-Guide-2011.pdf for a copy of Hadleigh’s Town Guide.
Perhaps running Babergh is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you but nobody listens.

 

 

Quis Custodiet

Brian Riley Canine Matters, Local Colour, Money Matters, Political - Local ,

YThe Watch Dogesterday I attended the inaugural meeting of the Babergh & Mid Suffolk Joint Audit & Standards Committee. The first substantive item of business was to approve the Committee’s Terms of Reference (TOR). The TOR is nice document, well written, reasonably unambiguous and for the most part fit for purpose. It is however written by officers and lacks sensitivity to the needs of the tax payers’ and residents.
Readers of this blog will be aware that I often feel that the information and opinions given to us at Babergh are often not as robust as I would like. I’m also conscious that some of my Councillor colleagues are reluctant to challenge and hold the executive to account.
So in a cross group collaboration I suggested that the TOR should be invigorated with the following additional duty:
To peruse, review and comment upon the non-salary expenses of the officers of the joint councils.
You would think that this was a no brainer – but no – the Chairman dithered and at one point suggested that such oversight could be unnecessary. None the less the item was put to the vote and approved (but not unanimously).
Already I can hear the Sir Humphreys in Corks Lane telling me that the new requirements will be too complicated, too expensive, and (I expect) too controversial to implement..
But the outcome will be that our employees will be fully accountable for their travel expenses etc., and we will enjoy a greater degree of transparency.
There’s nothing like the disinfectant of sunlight to force out sloppy practices.

Suffolk AONB Management Plan

Brian Riley Local Colour, Money Matters, Political - Local , ,

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAEvery now and then one gets a glimpse of the other planets that some people seem to inhabit. One of these astronomical events occurred when the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) Management Plan 2013-2018 came before the Suffolk County Council  Cabinet for approval and adoption. This is a well written document and was presented by Councillor David Wood, Chairman of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB Partnership. Suffolk gives £66,000 to the partnership and Babergh also makes a contribution. I raised the issue that at some point a well written document of about sixty pages  was handed over to the design consultants who proceeded to add thirty pages of photographs and other illustrations. Whilst I could understand such artistic creativity if we were promoting a tourist brochure, it struck me that here was a classic extravagance bordering upon a total waste of money. Councillor Wood told us that the design was done in house and that design consultants were not used. He did not tell us the role of Spring Design & Advertising Ltd who are credited with the design and production of the plan. What he did say was that the production of the plan did not come out of the monies provided by the County. It came from Defra (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs). Management plans are all about Management. (The clue is in the title). They do not need photographs. They may need maps and graphs but we do not need money wasted on fripperies. It all comes out of the same pocket – the taxpayers. The report can be viewed and downloaded from http://www.suffolkcoastandheaths.org/about-us/aonb-management-plan/.
Be careful if you print the maps on pages eleven and twelve in greyscale. It makes the coast seem to be under water.
Did I say that Councillor Wood was Leader of the Liberal Democrat and Independent Group at County and a Babergh District Councillor? Leopards do not change their spots and these people regard spending other people’s money in extravagant ways as a God given right. Thank goodness they did not get a majority in May.

Pay Policy at Babergh

Brian Riley Local Colour, Money Matters, Nice Things, Political - Local ,

Flag by BaberghMeanwhile on Planet Babergh, the District Councillors are being asked on Tuesday 25th June to approve the Collective Agreement on Employment Terms, Conditions and Policies.
The statement about financial implications of the new agreement is weak and flabby. Not for the first time do we have a lack of detail in this area. I have previously expressed my reluctance to sign blank cheques or to trust bland opinions.
It should be case of running the spreadsheets to get the opinion that that new arrangements will either mean more money in the staff pockets or not. Telling us that the savings targets as set out in the Business Case will be met, has nothing to do with salaries. Meeting the business case is a sine qua non. We expect nothing less!
What we do expect is hard robust opinions from the officers. How else can we have confidence in their assessments.
Towards the end of the summary of staff benefits we find that parking available to staff at the Council office car parks will be free of charge. The residents and visitors to Hadleigh pay for their parking, whether they are in employment or not. The same should apply to the employees at Babergh.
Free parking is not a perquisite to be enshrined in the Collective Agreement!
It would seem that the staff anticipate further charging for car parking and wish to be exempt from the realities of the people who pay their wages.
The full paper may be read on http://bdcdocuments.onesuffolk.net/council/ see paper N26.

Amazon Again

Brian Riley HadCham, Money Matters, Political - Local, Political - National and other, Uncategorized

Daily Telegraph Logo

The Daily Telegraph on 21st May had some cogent comment on the Amazon lack of taxes paid in the U.K . debate.

The article begins:

The criticism, of Google, Amazon and even Marks & Spencer for seemingly trying to lower their corporation tax payments threatens to take the focus away from the real tax issue in retail – business rates.

For all the focus on how little Amazon pays in corporation tax, it is how little they pay in business rates that is really hurting the high street Their business rate bill is negligible while Home Retail Group, the owner of high street rival Argos, pays £140m.

There is no complex tax avoidance scheme by Amazon to avoid paying business rates, their low payment is simply because they have little physical presence as a business compared to the 700 high street stores of Argos.

Therefore, if the Government is serious about making online companies pay taxes and also about saving the high street it must focus on revamping business rates.

One of the reasons Amazon appears to pay little corporation tax is that its profit margins are wafer thin, reflecting the fact that online retailing is not yet as. profitable as high-street retailing. In 2012, for example, the company posted a global operating profit of $676m (£444m) on sales of $61.lbn; That is a profit margin of just 1.1 p.c.

However, business rates have no relation to profitability – they are simply measured by the rentable value of a commercial property and inflation. This means that struggling high street’ retailers have been spending millions on business rates while start-up online retailers have been free of the tax. This imbalance threatens to distort the future of the retail industry.

The full article is enclosed as a PDF Freeze on Business Rates (since the on line version has been truncated).

 

Pay Policy Statement 2013/2014

Brian Riley Money Matters, Political - Local ,

 Flag bTuesday’s  Babergh District Council Meeting was a quiet affair being mainly concerned with formalities of approving matters already agreed upon elsewhere. For example who sits on and who leads the various sub committees.
However at the back of the morning we got around to looking at paper “N9 Pay Policy Statement 2013/14”. It was introduced in a gentle way. We were reminded that our approval was required in accordance with Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011.
However, under Financial Implications, we were informed that “The pay policy has been produced within existing resources and there are no financial implications”
I interpreted this statement to mean that Babergh produced the policy without chopping down any more trees than had already been killed in manufacturing the paper and that (perhaps) more importantly we had not used any external consultants.
This was not the information I would have liked. As always the key to analysis is not only to examine what is in front of you but what you are not seeing and what I was not seeing was an indication of how much this policy was costing us on a year on year basis.
After much standing up and sitting down the Chief Executive affirmed that there would  be no increase in the payroll as a result of the policy. I was grateful for the unequivocal statement along these lines and thanked the Chairman, the Chief Executive and the Head of Corporate Organisation.
It was like pulling teeth without anaesthetic .
Whilst I was congratulating myself of achieving unexpected reactions it did occur to me that perhaps there will be increases in the overall payroll but they won’t be due to the policy but to something else.
I’ll ponder on this when the time comes, probably in the small hours of a morning.

Supporting the High Street

Brian Riley HadCham, Local Colour, Money Matters, Political - Local , , ,

Hadleigh Loyalty CardMary Portas writes how people can be categorized as watchers and doers. Watchers watch (and criticize)
and doers do. There will always be  those happier about talking about the death of the High Street than actually doing something about it.
The Hadleigh Chamber of Commerce are only too aware of the situation of our High Street, especially now that Morrison’s have opened and new shopping habits are being  formed. The Chamber is working hard to create a High Street for the twenty first century.
Monday evening sees the second of a series of meetings (at Hadleigh Town Hall) with retailers to plan ways forward. Hadleigh now enjoys a population of 8,000 people which roughly equates to 4,000 families. If each family resolved to spend £25 a week in our High Street (and it’s not that difficult to find what you need at a price which is affordable) then we are looking to a boost of £100,000 coming into the High Street shops. We enjoy first class butchers, florists, farm fresh green grocery, wine merchant, bookshop, pet food shop, health food shop,delicatessen with artisan breads and cheeses, picture framer and decent and welcoming pubs. The High Street is one of the reasons why we chose to move here. For that reason alone we should support it vigorously. The High Street also brings social interaction, a chance to meet your neighbours and friends and to catch up on their news.
So tomorrow’s jobs include ordering the Easter lamb from the butcher and also a nice piece of brisket for slow cooking during the week.
Money has to go somewhere and if it doesn’t go in our neighbourhood then it goes somewhere else – not always to our benefit!

Three Cheers for Tendring

Brian Riley Local Colour, Money Matters, Nice Things, Political - Local ,

Mistley TowersYesterday’s East Anglia Daily Times reports  that Tendring District Council’s innovative free parking scheme is being hailed a success after businesses said they have seen a significant increase in footfall.  The Council is set to continue the popular initiative which allows people to use their car parks for 12 hours during the day completely free of charge. A survey carried out by the local authority on hundreds of businesses found that around 50% had noticed a higher footfall through their town centres since the free permits were issued to households. Approximately 30% of businesses said they noticed an increase in the number of customers coming through their doors. Tendring introduced the scheme at the end of July last year. Every council taxpaying household in the district was issued with a free parking permit for use at any of the council’s 25 car parks from 10 a.m. to midnight. Tendring District Council’s initiative has seen town centres buck the national trend, encouraging shoppers to visit their local retailers. Business leaders in Suffolk last night said the success of the scheme “bursts the balloon” of those who claim there is no correlation between free parking and increase in footfall. Mark Cordell, chief executive of town centre business improvement group Bid4Bury, said: “This scheme is a great example of the local authority listening to, and acting upon, the views of businesses. It is no surprise to me that it has been a huge success”.
Three cheers for a council that sees car parking as support for commercial well-being and not as some form of cash cow useful for balancing the cash flow deficit The full reports can be read on (http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/tendring_free_parking_scheme_boosts_business_1_1951477

Waking Up and Smelling the Coffee

Brian Riley Money Matters, Political - National and other , , ,

Coffee BeansDespite my previous promise to myself I have used Starbucks recently.
But in mitigation, there was no room in the nearby Costa.
For me. this is now the Starbucks’ advantage – they are the second choice.
Meanwhile Starbucks seem to be infected by the big girl’s blouse syndrome*
On the 26th January The Telegraph reported that Kris Engskov, the multinational’s UK managing director, demanded talks at Downing Street after the Prime Minister had said that tax-avoiding companies had to “wake up and smell the coffee”. Mr Cameron’s use of the phrase at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland was taken as a direct attack on Starbucks which has been criticised for not paying corporation tax in Britain.
(As if wake up and smell the coffee would make one think immediately of Starbucks – when did they copyright the words?)
Mr Engskov was so concerned about the “politicisation” of the tax issue that he asked for the talks at No 10, where he met officials last Friday.
Starbucks argues that it makes no profits in the UK and so is not required to pay the tax. The business turnover for the U.K. is not disclosed but if it is not making any profits why was it thinking of investing £100 million in new UK branches and why are sources close to the business saying that plans could be put on hold. Could the lack of confidence have anything to do with declining footfall and fortunes?
Meanwhile, whilst Starbucks are rattling their sabres, Lavazza have announced ambitious plans to open as many as 400 shops over the next decade.  
*From “he’s flapping like a big girl’s blouse”, which conjures up the twin ideas of a large garment flapping on a washing line and of a man flapping in the sense of panicking.

Taxing Councils

Brian Riley Local Colour, Money Matters, Political - Local, Political - National and other ,

Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph contained an interesting piece on the effect of the cuts to Council funding. The newspaper states that “It is a sign of how bloated local government had become that councils have shed 230,000 jobs without hitting front-line services”. Of course front line services have been hit but not in ways which significantly impinge on the services people receive. Standards have been eased but not sufficiently to cause complaints. At the yesterday evening’s Town Council meeting I was asked if the Babergh District Council staff were having to apply for their own jobs. I weaselled out of by saying that whilst I didn’t have any details it would follow that as we amalgamated services we should be able to do so with a lesser number of staff. Consequently people were not applying for their own jobs but for new jobs under the new regime. As night follows day there would be winners and losers. The keys to success were that the right people were chosen for the new posts– not necessarily those who could do the talk but those able to walk the walk. The other issue was that people who no longer had a job were treated fairly to ease the transition to the next phase of their lives – (e.g. statutory redundancy payments are enhanced by 50%). Times change and there is no iron rice bowl anywhere any more. The full piece can be found on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9755916/Taxing-councils.html