Waiting lists and bureaucracy

While the Assembly Government continues to wrestle with the Wales Office over housing and its many issues, it falls to a local government - Cardiff Council - to take a more common sense approach to housing issues in the capital city.

A single application process for waiting lists has been developed by the council, in partnership with eight housing associations. Just one form now needs to be filled out by anyone looking for housing in the city. This is then entered into a single database which is used by both the council and all housing associations involved. The new common waiting list is administered by the council on behalf of itself and the housing associations and currently has in excess of 6,000 applicants. In total the new waiting list, which covers social landlords, has over 22,000 properties.

Executive Member for Housing Councillor Judith Woodman said, "This has been a long process and has been developed in partnership with all local Housing Associations. It has created a service which makes sense to everyone and probably none more so than those applying for social housing. "I believe the new common waiting list brings common sense to a system so many of our citizens rely on."

How much does it cost to fill the 'skill shortage' hole? This much

In 2007/2008, the Welsh Assembly Government spent nearly £2m hiring the services of consultancy firms like Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Bravosolutions and Elan.

MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT SPENDING

• Conwy £3,120,000
• Flintshire £2,183,510
• Merthyr Tydfil £2,276,000
• Torfaen £2,083,267
• Swansea £1,449,066
• Bridgend £946,740
• Neath Port Talbot £781,457
• Caerphilly £675 411
• Wrexham £666,470
• Blaenau Gwent £613,812
• Gwynedd £549,964
• Ceredigion £433,112
• Powys £396,911
• Monmouthshire £305,919
• Denbighshire £213,257
• Vale of Glamorgan £50,224
• Carmarthenshire None
• Cardiff, Newport and Anglesey: No response to FoI requests within time limit
• RCT and Pembrokeshire FoI request not met because of cost reasons
• Welsh Assembly Government £1,964,365
  

[Spending on management consultants. Source: Freedom of Information request by BBC Wales]

The Best Waste of £200k of Public Money: Meme

Matt Wardman believes it's time for a Meme and he could be right. I've been tagged and it all started with this:

This morning Tom Harris MP proposed that the Howden and Haltemprice by-election was a monumental “waste of public money” of the order of “two hundred grand”. I differ; it is well worth it.

Matt's suggestions for the most monumental waste of £200k include:

The £200k costs being paid by the taxpayer for Ann Winterton MP and Nicholas Winterton MPs to rent their London house from themselves, and the death duty tax dodge that goes with it. The £200k estimated to have been spent by Mr Speaker Michael Martin on Legal Fees in order to keep MP’s expense details concealed from the public. The £200k of public money spent on each 0.04% of the £500 million just written off by the M.O.D. over the Special Forces Helicopters disaster.

I haven't seen the figure quoted in the Welsh budget but THIS public relations exercise isn't going to be cheap.

I’ll tag:
Cambria Politico, Cynical Dragon, Dylan Jones-Evans, Ordovicius, Peter Black AM, David Cornock (BBC Journalist), Three Line Whip, Iain Dale's Diary, and J. Arthur MacNumpty

Update: Italian chairs and desks formed part of a total spend of £880,000 on furnishing the new Caerphilly Council headquarters at Tredomen Business Park in Ystrad Mynach.

Talk about taking it to the next level.

Tories and Lib Dems' deal in Newport City

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats say they have struck a deal to take control of Newport council.

The council has been in limbo since May's local elections after no party won an outright majority, although Labour remains the biggest party overall.

Talks over leadership were further delayed by two by-elections.

Labour had held power in the city for nearly 30 years.

Year of the Independent

Following on from an earlier post on the recent local election, it seems that it really is the year of the independent politician, as an Independent is set to land top role in Welsh local government.

The Welsh Local Government Association is expected to be led by a non-Labour politician for the first time in its history.

John Davies, the Independent leader of Pembrokeshire County Council, has been nominated to take up the role for the next four years (A farmer and fluent Welsh speaker from Cwmbetws, near Eglwyswrw, he was previously WLGA’s Education Spokesman).

The final ratification will take place on June 27.

Please, Brian Gibbons, I want some more

Following on from an earlier post it seems that three Welsh councils, Anglesey, Conwy and Powys are reaching for their bowls.

The councils with the lowest grant rise in Wales are to appeal to an assembly government minister for an increase.

Powys, Anglesey and Conwy councils, which are scheduled to receive between 1% and 1.1%, will press for at least a 1.5% rise next year.

Local Government Minister Brian Gibbons was described as anticipating a "constructive discussion" with them.

Last month, the assembly government said grants across Wales were "tight" but called it a "realistic deal".

The latest meeting comes a week after a cross-party delegation from Powys Council held talks with mid Wales AMs.

The delegation, which will meet Dr Gibbons in Cardiff on Wednesday, is being led by Powys Council and also includes the Welsh Local Government Association.

What are the chances of the response being, "You've got to pick a pocket or two"?

Local Government Funding: Conwy in Call my Bluff

Well, it had to happen. In what seems like a classic example of call my bluff, Conwy County Borough Council attempts to stick its two fingers up to the Welsh Assembly Government - You've failed to give us a fair settlement, so if you can pay for that, then you can maybe pay for this.

The council which will welcome next year's Urdd Eisteddfod does not know if it can afford the £300,000 it has promised to the event.

Originally, Conwy Council had said it would give the money towards the costs of festival in Penrhyn Bay in May. But council leader Goronwy Edwards said financial constraints meant the council had to reassess all its spending.

The Urdd said any loss of support would be a "blow" and facilities would have to be reassessed.

Councillor Edwards said:

The council had promised £300,000 to the eisteddfod two to three years ago, but at the moment because of our settlement, we have to look at all our spending and make sure that council services are maintained... the council was having to reassess all its spending, and not just on the Eisteddfod.

We only received a settlement of 1.1% in the budget, which is very low, and so the money available to sustain services is much lower.

No discussion has yet taken place on financial support, but the council's scrutiny committee has refused other applications for assistance, including one from the Royal Welsh Show. "Things are very tight but I do hope that the council will be able to keep our promise to the Urdd," said Mr Edwards. "The last thing we want to do is not give the money, but council services must come first."

A meeting has been arranged next Wednesday with the Welsh Assembly Government to discuss the council's financial settlement.

It's safe to assume that it won't come to this, but you have to hand it to Council Leader Goronwy Edwards - who must be displaying one proud smirk at the moment - for this clever move. Councillors up and down the country must be kicking themselves that they couldn't come up with something before Conwy, in order to be the first to drive the knife in.