Council leader plays down bankruptcy threat
A recent issue of Private Eye described a leaked ‘peer review’ of the finances of Hastings Borough Council prepared by the Local Government Association as revealing it to be “on the brink of bankruptcy”. Cash reserves, it suggested, were being depleted unsustainably in order to maintain a balanced budget.
However, council leader Paul Barnett, who has taken over the financial portfolio within his cabinet, has issued what amounts to a denial of this charge. He says he accepts that the review was designed to challenge and support the council to improve its financial management and welcomed the LGA team to Hastings – “[we] look forward to the final report”. However, he also maintains that what has been leaked contained factual errors to which council officers are “suggesting corrections”.
He admitted at a cabinet meeting on 3 July that “my job is to be Scrooge now…We haven’t got enough money to do all the things we want to do”. But he also pointed out that a recent audit has shown the council ending the last financial year with cash reserves around £1.5m higher than had been anticipated, following increased investment returns and an underspend in a number of departments, mainly due to departing staff not being replaced.
The overriding problem is the cost of providing temporary housing, – an overspend of £2.8m last year. Cllr Barnett told his cabinet colleagues that the housing crisis, which was national rather than unique to Hastings, is “not going away any time soon”, and that “getting rid of this government is not going to be a salvation – the structural changes which need to be made to the housing market will take several years to achieve…We’ve got to be incredibly creative in finding ways of reducing our costs”.
Cllr Simon Willis, lead member for housing after the recent cabinet reshuffle, added that council officers in his housing ‘task force’ were “taking a great many measures to make sure we make progress in reducing this most important part of the financial challenge”. Besides starting an acquisitions programme, they were finding “cheaper options for temporary accommodation”, though he did not spell out what these are.
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How do the council set it’s priorities with budgeting our money? My list would be in order: Ensure every Hastings borough born person has a roof over their head. That they are all fed and watered. They all have access to good healthcare and education. Until that’s assured don’t spend a penny on outsiders or vanity projects. Guess you call that racist.
Hey Winston,
What outsiders and vanity projects are you thinking of?
You should be aware that housing, healthcare, education and the cost of living are mostly the responsibility of national government and private companies. There’s not a huge amount that HBC can do, but in the article above you can see they’ve overspent on trying to make sure the homeless of Hastings are housed.
HBC have a binding legal obligation to house homeless within the borough regardless of where they come from. Hastings is attractive to many such from all over the UK. Regardless of politics this is what is causing HBC’s financial problems.