Northampton Council bust.

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Discussion

Fittster

Original Poster:

20,120 posts

215 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
"Northamptonshire County Council has brought in a "section 114" notice, banning new expenditure as it faces a £21.1m overspend for 2017-18.

The county's seven MPs said they had lost confidence in the authority's conservative leadership.

But leader Heather Smith told the BBC she refuses to go until the council's finances are in better order."

"Northamptonshire embarked on a “next generation” reform plan in 2014. Services would be outsourced or turned into profit-making companies. The council would drastically shrink in size and be run like a business. “The old model of local government no longer works,” it declared.

The grand plan failed at a cost, say critics, of more than £50m on consultants and rebranding. Expected efficiency savings did not materialise, some privatised services have since been hauled back in-house and the scheme’s political architects"


Strange how we don't have a thread on this financial incompetence in the public sector..

slow_poke

1,855 posts

236 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
Fittster said:
Strange how we don't have a thread on this financial incompetence in the public sector..
Why, strange indeed. Someone should start one, really.

ecs

1,242 posts

172 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
No one's mentioning the £10million they lost after lending it to the local football club in this latest saga. Took them 4 years to realise it was missing and start criminal proceedings.

amusingduck

9,399 posts

138 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
ecs said:
No one's mentioning the £10million they lost after lending it to the local football club in this latest saga. Took them 4 years to realise it was missing and start criminal proceedings.
eek

saaby93

32,038 posts

180 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
Fittster said:
"Northamptonshire embarked on a “next generation” reform plan in 2014. Services would be outsourced or turned into profit-making companies. The council would drastically shrink in size and be run like a business. “The old model of local government no longer works,” it declared.

The grand plan failed at a cost, say critics, of more than £50m on consultants and rebranding. Expected efficiency savings did not materialise, some privatised services have since been hauled back in-house and the scheme’s political architects"
.
Anyone know what happened to Suffolk in the end?
They outsourced everything except for the highest paid Chief Exec in the country, until a few people asked if it was working

The test driver

1,176 posts

161 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
ecs said:
No one's mentioning the £10million they lost after lending it to the local football club in this latest saga. Took them 4 years to realise it was missing and start criminal proceedings.
Or the 53 million spent on the new council office.....which they've now got to sell and rent back.

Fittster

Original Poster:

20,120 posts

215 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
amusingduck said:
ecs said:
No one's mentioning the £10million they lost after lending it to the local football club in this latest saga. Took them 4 years to realise it was missing and start criminal proceedings.
eek
3rd November 2017
Missing loan MP’s fund got secret money

A Conservative MP's general election fund took hidden payments from a developer as a multimillion-pound loan he personally oversaw paid out.

More than £37,000 was channelled to David Mackintosh's 2015 campaign from 1st Land Ltd, while he was leader of Northampton Borough Council.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonsh...

PurpleMoonlight

22,362 posts

159 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
I drove through Northampton the other week, they certainly weren't overspending on the roads.

saaby93

32,038 posts

180 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all

mcg_

1,445 posts

94 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
ecs said:
No one's mentioning the £10million they lost after lending it to the local football club in this latest saga. Took them 4 years to realise it was missing and start criminal proceedings.
That was the borough council, not county

mcg_

1,445 posts

94 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
The test driver said:
Or the 53 million spent on the new council office.....which they've now got to sell and rent back.
they also sold lots of buildings to pay for it...

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

128 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
The test driver said:
ecs said:
No one's mentioning the £10million they lost after lending it to the local football club in this latest saga. Took them 4 years to realise it was missing and start criminal proceedings.
Or the 53 million spent on the new council office.....which they've now got to sell and rent back.
Oooh! Scary big numbers!

Just to put those figures into perspective, Northants County Council's budget is north of £800m/year.
https://www3.northamptonshire.gov.uk/councilservic...

£53m for the offices is less than they reduced the budget by last year... It's about the difference between the cut that actually happened and the much less restrictive "alternative budget".
https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/breaking-n...

dudleybloke

19,986 posts

188 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
Why on earth do public organisations like this always insist on an expensive rebranding package.
They are not a commercial enterprise who's customers can go elsewhere, so such ego driven decisions are a waste of money.

The test driver

1,176 posts

161 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Oooh! Scary big numbers!

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Hardly a tenner is it?

crankedup

25,764 posts

245 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
saaby93 said:
Fittster said:
"Northamptonshire embarked on a “next generation” reform plan in 2014. Services would be outsourced or turned into profit-making companies. The council would drastically shrink in size and be run like a business. “The old model of local government no longer works,” it declared.

The grand plan failed at a cost, say critics, of more than £50m on consultants and rebranding. Expected efficiency savings did not materialise, some privatised services have since been hauled back in-house and the scheme’s political architects"
.
Anyone know what happened to Suffolk in the end?
They outsourced everything except for the highest paid Chief Exec in the country, until a few people asked if it was working
The CEO Suffolk CC resigned IIRC, her strategic plans for the County were not compatible or acceptable to the Counties elected Members. On that basis I assume that most of her plans were thrown out. The CEO replacing her was offered the job at a salary of around half of the outgoing CEO.

wc98

10,485 posts

142 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
dudleybloke said:
Why on earth do public organisations like this always insist on an expensive rebranding package.
They are not a commercial enterprise who's customers can go elsewhere, so such ego driven decisions are a waste of money.
this a million times over. there seems to be a large amount of senior public sector officials suffering delusions of grandeur. they are public servants, no more, no less.

if they were top tier quality private sector individuals that is where they would be working. a poster on this forum receives regular taunting for suggesting the level of budget reduction he can foresee in the nhs should certain good practice be applied. when you see the abject waste on top of inefficiency in some ares of the public sector i don't think it is too much of a leap to think that poster may well be correct.

Murph7355

37,858 posts

258 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Oooh! Scary big numbers!

Just to put those figures into perspective, Northants County Council's budget is north of £800m/year.
https://www3.northamptonshire.gov.uk/councilservic...

£53m for the offices is less than they reduced the budget by last year... It's about the difference between the cut that actually happened and the much less restrictive "alternative budget".
https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/breaking-n...
Neither of which are necessarily relevant:

1) The size of your budget does not dictate how much your offices should cost

2) Presumably those savings weren't predicated on a new building...

Tankrizzo

7,316 posts

195 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Oooh! Scary big numbers!

Just to put those figures into perspective, Northants County Council's budget is north of £800m/year.
https://www3.northamptonshire.gov.uk/councilservic...

£53m for the offices is less than they reduced the budget by last year... It's about the difference between the cut that actually happened and the much less restrictive "alternative budget".
https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/breaking-n...
So? So what? They've spent north of £100m on new offices and rebranding/consultants in the last couple of years. That's a stupendous amount of money and certainly one which any normal person would describe as "scary big numbers" (sic).

eldar

21,872 posts

198 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
Tankrizzo said:
So? So what? They've spent north of £100m on new offices and rebranding/consultants in the last couple of years. That's a stupendous amount of money and certainly one which any normal person would describe as "scary big numbers" (sic).
Chicken feed. Thats only £413 per Northampton resident. A mere bagatelle to those rich residents...

V8mate

45,899 posts

191 months

Monday 12th February 2018
quotequote all
slow_poke said:
Fittster said:
Strange how we don't have a thread on this financial incompetence in the public sector..
Why, strange indeed. Someone should start one, really.
We do. Fittster has even contributed it.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...