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18 Dec 20
Treasury managers face a number of considerations to balance their search for financial returns with ethical and environmental considerations, says David Whelan.
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5 Oct 20
Joint ventures can allow an authority to share in some of the return from the development of their assets. But they need a solid strategic base to succeed
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21 Aug 20
A second local authority has signed up to a lending platform enabling it to fund business loans to local firms and build its cash reserves.
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13 Jul 20
The government is “blind” to the extreme risks some councils have exposed themselves to through their commercial investments, a report by the Public Accounts Committee has claimed.
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3 Jul 20
Council investment in land and buildings has dropped for the first time since 2011-12, according to data from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
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14 May 20
The lifeline that commercial property investment offered many councils looks set to be cut in the face of a government clampdown on borrowing
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12 May 20
A small number of councils buying commercial property purely to make money should not result in a complete overhaul of CIPFA’s guidelines on investment, chief executive Rob Whiteman has told MPs.
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1 May 20
West Berkshire Council has approved the UK’s first community municipal investment, following a vote last night.
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21 Apr 20
The Public Accounts Committee has launched an inquiry into local authority investments in commercial properties.
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30 Mar 20
The Covid-19 pandemic strengthens the argument that human capital investment can help build a healthy and prosperous society, argues senior fellow at the Health Foundation Dave Finch.
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25 Feb 20
The government may struggle to fulfil its plans to invest £100bn in capital projects over the next five years, a think-tank has said.
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12 Feb 20
Local authority investment in commercial property has increased fourteen-fold over three years as councils seek alternative sources of revenue amid cuts leaving them open to risk, the spending...
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10 Feb 20
A group of London pensions organisations have launched a fund to focus on affordable housing, community regeneration and clean energy.
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29 Jan 20
Kent County Council will receive a £138.9m repayment following the collapse of the Woodford fund, a reduction of 56% from the peak of its investment.
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24 Jan 20
“Outcome” is one of those talismanic local government words that has been bludgeoned into near meaninglessness by repetition and ubiquity, argues Grant Thornton’s Martin Ellender.
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10 Jan 20
Kent County Council will have to wait a further 10 days before it receives its first payment from the stricken Woodford Equity Income Fund, it has been announced.
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8 Jan 20
South Somerset District Council has struck a commercial property deal worth nearly £10m for an office block 150 miles away.
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9 Sep 19
The value of Kent County Council’s pension scheme investment in the troubled Woodford fund has fallen by £36m, figures from the local authority have revealed.
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4 Jul 19
John Thornton looks at whether it is fair for the Public Accounts Committee to strongly criticised the Cabinet Office over the evidence base and lack of a business case for the National...
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17 May 19
The public spending watchdog is investigating the government’s oversight of councils’ commercial property investment, MPs have heard.
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14 Nov 18
The world of local government finance has seen massive changes in recent years, but updated guidance is available to help bridge the gap, explains consultant Peter Worth.
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7 Nov 18
Many redevelopment schemes in the UK put the onus on corporate profit at the cost of local communities but other countries show there is another way, argues Genevieve Maitland Hudson of Social...
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31 Oct 18
Forthcoming CIPFA guidance on commercial property investment will aim to keep local authorities ‘out of the headlines’.
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18 Oct 18
CIPFA is to work on fresh guidance over concerns councils in England are putting public funds at “unnecessary or unquantified risk” when borrowing to invest in commercial property.
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7 Sep 18
Business rates are broken and deter companies from investing to boost productivity - abolishing them would bring benefits to the public sector as well as enterprise, argues Lib Dem Lord Fox.