Issue - meetings

A REPORT FROM THE CABINET MEMBER FOR FINANCE AND HOUSING, COUNCILLOR O’BRIEN IS ATTACHED.

Councillor O’Brien, Cabinet Member for Finance & Housing attended the meeting to present this item, however, it was assumed that all members of the committee had read the report and the following questions and comments were made:

Councillor Harris asked for more information on how the Council invested in property and are we getting good returns.

Councillor O’Brien confirmed we were getting better returns that if the money was in the bank and that this information on individual investments would be made available.

Paul Lakin also confirmed that the property in Lytham that was empty is under offer to a national retail chain.

Councillor Walker asked who advised on investments and are we saddling future Councils with long term debt.

Lisa Kitto explained that investment was a specific area and specialists Link Advisors are used.  This is also not long term debt.  It is also structured to pay less now and more in 20-25years time when the value of the loan will be less due to inflation.

Councillor Jones stated that for years the administration had blames austerity and the government for the state of the Council’s budgets.  But a lot of money had just been found and asked why this had only been done now.

Councillor O’Brien stated this was nonsense, we had lost £100m from Council budgets and the minor accounting change identified this year was not comparable.  New capacity and leadership now had led to changes of decisions on financial management.

It was agreed:

The report be noted.