Big boost for capital projects

Published on Monday, 6th February 2017

All the paperwork on the 2017/18 council budget has now been published (http://democracy.portsmouth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=126&MId=3535&Ver=4). 

The hard part of putting together any local authority budget is coming up with a list of savings that are of sufficient size so as to leave the books in balance, but which do not have an excessive negative impact on residents and which do not store up trouble for the long run. That exercise was completed in December when Full Council endorsed the administration's proposed plan to save £9m. The February meeting is about capital expenditure, the council tax and forecasts for the future.

Capital expenditure

The funding and delivery of the capital programme is going rather well. Crudely, infrastructure taxes, money from government for school repairs and transport schemes and a few other reoccurring bits and pieces amount to £7m a year. This is then supplemented by any money from government for new school places, the receipts from selling land or buildings and potentially money saved on day-to-day expenditure.

This coming year the council has £16m to play with, plus £8m put aside during the year - and that's without allowing for any grant that may be received in the spring for new school places. The baseline £7m has been supplemented by windfall profits from the property investment fund, the receipt from selling Chaucer House for the development of student housing, the faster than expected growth in council tax and business rate income and the improved performance of the port. Strip out school building and this will be the largest capital programme in years.

The council has three high priority programmes and once again most of the money will be allocated to them. These are the roads, schools and flood defences. This year will see:

- £11m for the City Centre Road, which will allow the council to make a serious bid to the government for the remainder of the cost. This scheme isn't primarily about traffic flow: it's about regeneration and getting something built on the old Northern Quarter site. If the road goes ahead, things will start to move.

- £0.5m for improvements on the Eastern Road corridor

- £4.4m to increase the capacity of Portsmouth Academy (formerly City Girls) by over 200

- £1.2m to go towards enhancements to the flood defences in Southsea, so we end up with something better than just a wall

Most of the rest of the cash is to go on maintenance projects, IT systems and so forth. One thing that I wanted, namely to improve the public realm in part of the city centre, is included, although work won't start on the ground for more than a year.

Council tax

A 4.99% rise is proposed, which is a percent higher than originally planned. The extra money will go to adult social care and it is only temporary - the increase in one of the two following years will now be lower than the 4% originally planned to balance it all out.

Portsmouth has always spent less per head on adult social care than most other authorities - a study by the Municipal Journal in 2015 identified it as the forth lowest spender (out of 152) after allowing for demographics. Starting from a low base is making it difficult to generate further savings, but there are still things to be done: eliminating red tape and allowing social workers to think for themselves has improved the service for older people and saved money at the same time; a new IT system shared with the NHS will improve productivity and a proactive approach to getting people mobile again is bearing fruit.

Forecasts for the future

A couple of interesting details in the report: firstly, the council's contribution to the pensions of current and former staff will rise by £2m (or 30%) over the next three years. This is a national increase and reflects the difficulty in earning sufficient returns to cover obligations at a time of low interest rates. Portsmouth City Council has no choice other than to make these extra payments, but the money will have to come from somewhere.

Secondly, the level of savings needed in future years has come down to £4m a year for the next three years. This is a good situation to be in and reflects the prudent decisions made over the last couple of years. 

Tags: Budget

Seafront shelter to be restored and a boost for the pier

Published on Monday, 6th February 2017

Hidden amongst the budget announcements are two that directly affect this area. The first is an allocation of £70,000 to restore an Edwardian shelter that is currently in storage; it will be sited near the Coffee Cup. The second is that the council will potentially make £50,000 available for South Parade Pier provided adequate guarantees of public access can be secured.

The shelter project has been around for a while and concerns the remains of a structure that stood where the Pyramids now is. It was disassembled when the site was cleared for construction in the mid to late 1980s and has been in storage ever since. Some parts are missing and all require restoration. A sister shelter, painted black and white, exists on the Esplanade to the west of Rocksby's Café.

Money for the pier will be conditional on getting something back for local residents. There will have to be a period of negotiation on specifically what that might mean and it would therefore not be sensible for me to speculate on might be asked for in advance.

While not part of this year's budget, the other major investment in this area is the new butterfly house in the gardens of Cumberland House. The old structure has now been removed and planning consent granted for its replacement. Diagrams showing how the new house will look are available here.

Tags: Budget, Seafront

Working with charities

Published on Monday, 6th February 2017

One thing I am personally very supportive of is the charity and voluntary sector. Many non-profit organisations achieve great results for comparatively modest amounts of money. Many are able to attract government, lottery and other funding not available to local government. By operating outside of public sector procurement rules and pension schemes, they avoid many of the costs that councils and other parts of the state face.

I am delighted that the City Council has been able to find premises for the Recovery Café, a voluntary organisation that promotes abstinence based recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. The building in Fratton Road has been made available on a peppercorn rent, with the quid pro quo being that the café take responsibility for the upkeep of the building. 

The council budget also includes £50,000 to be offered to domestic abuse charity, PARCS, to repair the council-owned building they operate from. The council could repair the building itself, but the bill could well be higher and as a charity, PARCS should be able to secure some funding that a local authority cannot. I should note that this offer has only just been made and as yet I do not know whether it will be accepted.

Tags: Charities

Fire services in Portsmouth

Published on Monday, 31st January 2017

Hampshire Fire and Rescue is one of the few parts of local government to have a clear and deliverable plan to protect services all the way to 2020 and beyond. The main strands are to merge back office functions with Hampshire County Council, to share offices with the police and to introduce new technology into fire fighting and to reduce staff numbers where it is save to do so. 

In this area, that will involve the introduction of some nimble vehicles, better adapted for city streets and will involve no longer having an extra crew for the aerial ladder platform. That latter change has been used by the Liberal Democrats to try and scare people, both last year when these changes were agreed and now. It is important to set the record straight:

• The aerial ladder platform can reach about 7 storeys. It is NOT used for high rise fires

• There are two other aerial ladder platforms in Hampshire and neither has its own crew. Portsmouth was an exception for political (and not operational) reasons – it was given a crew as a sop following the closure of Copnor

• Its main use is for observation after fires have been extinguished.

• Its secondary use is in factory fires, where it can be used to spray water from above

• In 2015, it was called out just 16 times

• On average, each of the eight crew (over four shifts) were called out just once every three months

• The aerial ladder platform is still at Southsea. Other firemen can man it

• When it is deployed, crews in Havant and Fareham backfill to maintain cover in Portsmouth

• The reason it was available at a recent fire in Albert Road was because it was broken down and NOT because there was no-one to man it. A vehicle from Southampton was sent and its only role was in checking the structure of the building after the fire was out.

The Fire Brigades Union has to argue to maintain staffing no matter what: that is its job. That the Liberal Democrats are going round trying to scare people witless for narrow political advantage is disgraceful. The reality is fire cover has never been better than it is now. The number of fires has halved in ten years and the equipment on fire engines has improved. 

Tags: fire

Secondary school rolls rise again

Published on Sunday, 22nd January 2017

While increases are also forecast for the infant and junior stages, the big shift this year is in secondary school forecasts.I don't have the numbers in front of me, but crudely the number of year 7 pupils expected in 2019/20 is about 70 higher than similar estimates for that year made twelve months ago. So even though we've created some 80 additional year 7 places this year through reconfiguring existing accommodation, the forecast school place deficit has not come down.

This may seem odd: on the face of it, predicting year 7 numbers is easy, you just count backwards to get the number in the year those pupils are currently in. That however ignores two factors: one, that significant numbers of Portsmouth children attend state primary schools and public secondary schools and two, that a large number of children from mainland parts of Portsmouth attend secondary schools outside the city's boundaries: mostly Purbrook Park and Portchester.

Hampshire is also experiencing growing school rolls, with the result that it no longer has spare capacity for Portsmouth pupils. This is a problem. If the latest forecasts are correct and if no further remedial action is taken, there will be no spare places at all in year 7 by 2019/20 (I think the estimate is we'd be one short).

Local authorities remain responsible for creating places in all types of school, whether academy or not. The capital budget for 2017/8 is not yet finalised, but some provision for further school expansion is likely to be included.

Tags: Schools

Portsmouth's economy grows

Published on Sunday, 22nd January 2017

The city's economy will be one of fastest growing in the country this year according to a report produced for law firm, Irwin Mitchell.

Its UK Powerhouse study monitors the performance of 38 larger urban areas and concludes that Portsmouth's economy will grow by 0.9% this year, placing it in the top ten. 

Last year's growth of 2.1% was much higher, but only placed the city in the mid-table as the country as a whole grew at a faster rate. This year's figures includes a sizable slowing of the economy due to Brexit, although as other forecasts of the negative effects of leaving the EU have proven wide of the mark we will see what actually happens.

The report is at http://www.irwinmitchell.com/ukpowerhouse 

Tags: Economy

Police and the council tax

Published on Sunday, 22nd January 2017

Hampshire Police intend to increase their slice of the council tax by 3.12%, the maximum amount allowed without causing a referendum; band D households will see their bills increase by £5 a year.

The office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is an independent precepting authority, meaning that it makes a charge that is part of the council tax and that the City Council has to collect, but which it has no say over in setting: that is a matter entirely for the Police and Crime Commissioner, Michael Lane. 

Hampshire Constabulary is one of the ten lowest spending police forces in England (out of 43). In part this is because the level of police cover required in areas without very large cities is lower, but also because it has historically spent less than comparable areas.

At a public meeting in the week, Michael Lane said that the force has saved £80m since 2010, which amounts to about 20%. Portsmouth City Council by contrast has saved 44%, so on the face of it there is more the police can do and personally I am not convinced at this proposed tax rise.

The official police consultation is at www.hampshire-pcc.gov.uk/preceptsurvey should you want to comment. Some background information on police funding is here

Tags: Budget, Police

Interaction saved

Published on Tuesday, 3rd January 2017

(picture shows me at the Interaction Christmas party)

Excellent news for people with mental health issues: the City Council has found a way of keeping the Portsmouth Interaction service running.

This service provides support and activities to allow people to gain confidence and move on with their lives. The pressure on budgets has meant this was in danger, but by working with its new leisure provider, BH Live, the council has come up with a deal that will see that organisation take over the running of the service as part of its contract.

With BH Live running the Mountbatten Centre and various other leisure venues across the city, it has the space and the facilities to provide this kind of help. This is a great example of the council thinking differently and managing to not just save but to improve services while still making the savings it has to make.

Tags: Adult Social Care

Housebuilding stats

Published on Tuesday, 3rd January 2017

Tables of government statistics sometimes make interesting reading: the recently published figures on the calculation of the New Homes Bonus being a case in point.

This gives an update on the number of houses completed and brought back into use by every local authority in England.

In Portsmouth 440 new properties were built and 234 properties back into use between April 2015 and April 2016. That may sound a large figure, but in comparison with other areas around the region it really isn't. Comparing it to the 66 councils that comprise the Southeast region, Portsmouth has the eighth lowest rate of household construction per 100000 people but the highest rate of empty properties brought back into use. The former reflects both a shortage of land and the council's restrictive policies on planning, while the latter reflects the large number of existing houses made available as a result of student accommodation being built in the city centre.

Many people always have the impression that there's a great deal of construction in Portsmouth, but the figures show otherwise and in many other areas the numbers are four times greater.

The full table is here. The areas with lower rates of housebuilding are Adur, Gosport, Medway, Mole Valley, Hastings, Thanet and Canterbury. The highest rate was in Vale of the White Horse, where was 4.2 times as much.

Tags: Planning