By Mark Smulian
5 May 2010
An ‘almost unique’ council with serious money problems should ask the Audit Commission to devise a less onerous inspection regime for it, according to a local government finance expert.
in February, West Somerset District Council asked former Westminster City Council chief executive Bill Roots to review its finances after incurring heavy borrowings and running out of capital receipts.
The Audit Commission rated the council ‘weak’ in 2008 and an improvement board was installed to oversee progress.
Roots said West Somerset could not develop the capacity to meet normal inspection demands. This was because the council was ‘almost unique’. It served only 35,000 people in a large geographical area, had just 100 staff, suffered from a low tax base and did badly under the grant system.
He questioned whether the council had the means to improve on its low scores for use of resources and organisational assessment, ‘as expected by inspection regimes’.
Roots added: ‘I consider that the simplification of the regime against which the council is judged is the most productive course to follow.’
West Somerset faced an annual deficit of £400,000 on a revenue budget of only £5.2m and had minimal scope for efficiency savings, staff reductions or cost-effective shared services, he noted.
Council leader Keith Ross said West Somerset’s resources were so stretched it could not do all that the commission expected.
It was ‘abundantly clear’ from Roots’ findings that for the council to remain viable ‘there must be a widespread agreement to a softening of the external approach to inspection and a simplification of internal processes,’ Ross said.
The Audit Commission responded that it was happy to meet with the council to discuss ‘flexibility in the inspection arrangements’.
5 May 2010
An ‘almost unique’ council with serious money problems should ask the Audit Commission to devise a less onerous inspection regime for it, according to a local government finance expert.
in February, West Somerset District Council asked former Westminster City Council chief executive Bill Roots to review its finances after incurring heavy borrowings and running out of capital receipts.
The Audit Commission rated the council ‘weak’ in 2008 and an improvement board was installed to oversee progress.
Roots said West Somerset could not develop the capacity to meet normal inspection demands. This was because the council was ‘almost unique’. It served only 35,000 people in a large geographical area, had just 100 staff, suffered from a low tax base and did badly under the grant system.
He questioned whether the council had the means to improve on its low scores for use of resources and organisational assessment, ‘as expected by inspection regimes’.
Roots added: ‘I consider that the simplification of the regime against which the council is judged is the most productive course to follow.’
West Somerset faced an annual deficit of £400,000 on a revenue budget of only £5.2m and had minimal scope for efficiency savings, staff reductions or cost-effective shared services, he noted.
Council leader Keith Ross said West Somerset’s resources were so stretched it could not do all that the commission expected.
It was ‘abundantly clear’ from Roots’ findings that for the council to remain viable ‘there must be a widespread agreement to a softening of the external approach to inspection and a simplification of internal processes,’ Ross said.
The Audit Commission responded that it was happy to meet with the council to discuss ‘flexibility in the inspection arrangements’.
