Brighton & Hove City Council has emerged as one of the creditable ‘local heroes' to escape the freeze on investments in Icelandic banks. The council stopped trading with Icelandic banks last year, because of concerns over their rapid expansion, and was quick to issue a statement aimed at reassuring residents as news of the freeze became public. Cabinet member for finance, Cllr Jan Young, said: ‘Our watchword is caution. We're very aware of our responsibilities in managing taxpayers' money and are careful both about who we invest with and how much we invest. We suspended transactions with the one we had on our books, Kaupthing, Singer & Friedlander, about a year ago, after picking up concerns in the marketplace about Icelandic banks expanding too quickly.' Winchester City Council found itself in the full glare of publicity for investing £1m in Heritable Bank Ltd on 16 September. The council was slated for being ‘blind and deaf' by Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, Lord Oakshot, in a heated clash with LGA chief executive, Paul Coen, on Radio 4's Today programme, when he insisted: ‘By mid-September, the alarm bells were ringing and red lights flashing all over Iceland and its banks.' Opposition Labour councillors have called for a special meeting to discuss Westminster City Council's £17m investment in Iceland with almost £10m being deposited in August. Despite its concerns, Surrey CC proved unable to remove the £10m it has deposited at each of the Icelandic banks, Glitnir and Landsbanki, because the investment is tied in for two-year period. West Sussex CC has £12.9m in the Heritable Bank along with £6.8m from Sussex Police Authority, and the two organisations wrote to chancellor Alistair Darling insisting: ‘We can see absolutely no reason why our individual council taxpayers, should be treated any differently from the individual depositors you are already protecting.'
