Stroud District Council to spend £45,000 to find out why budget was overspent (From Gazette Series)

Stroud District Council to spend £45,000 to find out why budget was overspent

8:30am Thursday 2nd July 2009 in

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OVER £45,000 is being spent on three inquiries to find out why the district council overspent on its budget by £1.2 million.

Stroud District Council is set to pay £45,076 for inquiries to be carried out into the overspend on its Housing Revenue Account, the Gazette can reveal.

The figure was released after the Gazette submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Stroud District Council.

The cost of the inquiries has caused alarm among some councillors, who believe it is wasting more money that could be spent on upgrading council homes to a decent standard.

Cllr John Fowls (Lab), district councillor for Cam, said: "It is just another example of wasting money. It will serve no useful purpose other than to cover up what has happened.

"They could have probably paid for six or seven bathroom upgrades in council homes or made a start on the disabled adaptations that need doing.

"Effectively it will be the tenants who foot the bill. I think it is disgusting really."

The inquiries will be carried out by national consultants KPMG, housing consultancy Tribal and the Audit Commission.

It follows revelations in May that the council had let its bill for repairs and maintenance of the council’s housing stock run into £1.2 million, despite a figure of £395,000 being reported to the council just two months previously.

In response David Hagg, chief executive of the council, ordered a full investigation to find out how the overspend occurred.

Cllr Dennis Andrewartha (LibDem), district councillor for Cam, agreed that the figure for the investigation sounded high but that he felt it was necessary to get to the bottom of the problem.

"This has been a major embarrassment for the council and I want to know precisely what has gone on. By spending some money on the investigation it will ensure we never get into this situation again," he said.

Mr Hagg said: "The £45,000 does a number of things, not just answer the question about the overspend and the council would be having to spend over half this money during the coming year anyway. Rather than a 'drip drip' approach, it is all being focused together."

Mr Hagg said the money would go towards several things including "shining a light" on the council’s internal processes to ensure an overspend on this scale never happens again and working with the Audit Comission to improve performance for the future.

He added: "We are also obliged by Government to look at our housing options such as transfer of housing stock to a housing association or similar organisation.

"Ever since tenants voted to keep council homes under council ownership we have been under constant pressure, from regional civil servants, to explore the options again, so we would be doing this work anyway. I have brought this forward so the council is able to consider all the issues together."