Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey Council: Facing the financial challenges
Hi all
Please see a link to our new video outlining the reality of the financial challenges faced by Haringey Council, our commitment to transparency and working with residents to find solutions and to take the fight to national government as we call for fairer funding for local services.
You can watch the video here.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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A revamped Civic Centre would be a nice-to-have and indirectly, it would benefit residents. All of course, if money permits.
In 2021 the cost estimate was £24 million and later climbed to £54 million.
And then it went up again.
Three years ago the Tottenham & Wood Green Independent reported:
Haringey Council approves £65m civic centre revamp
However, the council had already burnt a big chunk from their Capital Budget through in a serious of undocumented, irregular or corrupt deals, or the capital needed was borrowed, or a combination.
The scheme is likely to have been pushed forward by council employees ("policy compliant"), assisted by feeble governance.
Borough households have to live within their means, but previous (imprudent) Administrations showed a lack of restraint with public money. If not recklessness and irresponsibility.
IMO, if accurate records are kept, then residents deserve to be told about its current financial status.
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Permalink Reply by Cllr Jo Kuper
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Thanks, Nigel. Cllr Johann Beckford is away for the next couple of weeks, but am sure will be happy to respond more when he's back. What I will say is we are absolutely committed to understanding every line of the budget, and bringing down the EFS is a priority. At the same time, we have to be sure that we don't see further disproportionate impact on communities who are already struggling with the impacts of 15-years of austerity.
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Sorry! The Exceptional Financial Support loans that the council has had to take out to balance the books which is a legal requirement. Despite being needed to ensure the council can provide statutory services, these have an interest rate of 7%...
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we are absolutely committed to understanding every
line of the budget, and bringing down the EFS is a priority————
Jo, good to see this!
I was shocked to read in your other post, that Exceptional Financial Support costs us 7%.
Currently, many Haringey residents would personally be able borrow money at 100 Basis Points less than that.
Does this not suggest that the lender to our Council has included a significant risk-premium?
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In previous litigation that was Decided in January last year, the council is recorded as having written to me at Para 40:
The financial details of the Council are sensitive by definition, …
The Tribunal Judge appeared to take a dim view of this claim, noting at Para 58 that it was "not in any event a FOIA exemption".
What is sensitive beyond doubt, was political and career embarrassment.
The council forget they spend public money, but not always in the public interest. The least the staff can do is to account for it, fully, honestly and accurately.
The local council has long been obsessed with secrecy, especially over its finances. Sometimes, excuses are offered up in order to conceal mistakes, incompetence or worse. Redaction in FoI answers was sometimes reflexive. In FoI requests, council employees decide the Public Interest Test; alternatively, marking their own homework.
The council's ill-considered claim betrayed an outlook that could be ascribed to a family business, where the managers have forgotten who their customers are, and the only shareholders are the bosses and staff.
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