MONEY MATTERS

摘要

With Barking and Dagenham LBC's budget and council tax level teetering on the edge of being approved by our assembly, I have had time to reflect on how difficult balancing the figures over the last two years has been. The sheer amount of money which has needed to be taken out of our council is phenomenal, and I am surprised many authorities are still standing. So, where do we go now, given the financial indications for local government are more of the same. I remember chatting to a finance director of an FTSE 100 company over a vodka, and a bizarre goats cheese and sweet meringue starter. His view was that it did not matter how efficient an organisation was, there would still be a certain measure of inefficiency, since systems were largely operated by people, and people are prone to inefficiency.