Friday brief: Three year stalemate on huge county council debt finally broken
Friday brief: Three year stalemate on huge county council debt finally broken
Plus a Northants man in his twenties is appearing in court this morning for sentencing after admitting to stirring up racial tension
The county’s two unitary council’s have finally decided after three years of deadlock on how to split the huge debts of the county council.
The West and North Northants Councils will formally agree the deal in coming days in their council chambers, meaning both can now be clear on what financial resources and debts they have.
Just under one billion pounds was the subject of the dispute and at one point it had looked like the authorities would have to go to legal arbitration after failing to agree. But after the involvement of the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA) , the authorities have found a way to settle their dispute.
North leader Cllr Jason Smithers and West leader Cllr Adam Brown, issued a statement yesterday saying that deciding where the debts of the former county council go was not a ‘simple task’.
The bone of contention was the capital financing requirement - which is the funding for capital projects that demands borrowing to pay for it - which stood at £954.8m. This was made up of £346m of loans pre 2008, £301m in PFI and lease schemes and £304m of prudential borrowing. Using CIPFA’s methodology the £608.3m was able to be split based on the geographic location of the asset - which meant £432.6m on the West’s balance sheet and £175m on the North. The remaining £346m was split on a ratio principle, which the report says was the most fair and equitable approach.
In the end the North, which is the smaller authority, has £348.9m of the debt and the West has £605.9m.
As the balance sheet disaggregation had been unresolved, neither authority has had a complete set of accounts since they began. Coupled with national audit issues, which have seen auditors well behind with their work, it means a definitive picture of how the authorities are doing has not been possible.
News in brief
Tyler Kay, 26, will be sentenced this morning at Northampton Crown Court after admitting an offence of publishing threatening material in an attempt to stir up racial tension. He will be the first person in the region sentenced for this crime, which he committed on Wednesday.
The justice system has been processing the hundreds of arrests and charges made in the past week in the wave of race riots that have spread across the country following online misinformation about the identity of the killer of three young girls in Southport.