The world's banking sector continues to cause enormous concerns and difficulties for the world economy and local government. And I have noticed a huge increase in the number of ‘specialists' spouting forth about what should be done and not done in the world of treasury management. The fact is, most of these so-called ‘new experts', who question boroughs which had investments in Iceland before the official warnings, have only one qualification and that's a Masters in Hindsight (MIH). The organisations one has to have serious doubts about are those which put millions in, post all the warnings, and certainly do not require the MIH qualification! The all-new Use of resources assessment will, I assume, look into the matter. Condensed down to 100 pages of guidance, its creators clearly missed the ‘keep it simple' message. I have had to listen to a presentation on this and... sorry, the lawyers removed this paragraph. The fact is, local government does not need blanket rules applied, and it certainly does not need a team of people who have insufficient experience in running a real organisation telling it what to do. We are here to provide excellent services for our residents, are more than capable of doing so, and do not need the distraction or cost of the new assessment unless the quality of such an inspection improves and really helps our residents get value from the inspection. The biggest decision of the year will be made over coming weeks in what the change in council tax will be. The latest RPI figure of 0.9% will no doubt play heavily on politicians' minds, particularly if it is felt it will get lower. The question to be answered is, how much does it drive your authority's cost base? Richard Ennis is finance director at Ealing LBC
