Councils are considering legal action over £217m of deposits tied up in Iceland’s failed Glitnir Bank.
Today, the Local Government Association has said it is considering legal action over the decision of Glitnir’s winding up board not to give English local authorities ‘preferred creditor’ status. This means they are likely to get only get back a quarter of the money they have in the bank, rather than the whole £217m.
Margaret Easton, chairman of the LGA, called Glitnir’s decision “confusing and concerning”. Last month Icelandic bank Landsbanki recognised £414m of deposits from …

Prime minister Gordon Brown (pictured) said the government would invest more in high speed rail at the launch of a £5.8bn high speed rail link this morning.
Brown made the commitment at the launch this morning of the high speed rail link between St Pancras International station in London and Kent. The event was held at St Pancras. He said investment in high-speed rail networks would continue and that by the end of March the government would publish plans for a high speed network to connect the north and the south.
Brown …

The government has named Ernst & Young’s John McCready head of its £370bn property portfolio.
Today, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills revealed that McCready would head up the new Property Unit within the Shareholder Executive. The unit will have government departments and local authorities maximise the value of the state’s £370bn property assets.
The estate includes central government properties, its operational estate including the National Health Service and Ministry of Defence, and the local government estate excluding social housing.
McCready will be in charge of reviewing options for the estate, as …

Chancellor Alistair Darling sidestepped big cuts to frontline services in the pre-Budget report earlier today.
Darling revealed the pre-Budget report in the House of Commons today said that the government would stick to its budgets for departmental spending for the 2010/11 financial year. Instead, he spelled out £5bn of cuts to public sector spending programmes and by making back office processes more efficient.
Here are the key points from the pre-Budget report for property managers in the public sector:

Government to save £340m by cutting New Deal for Communities and prioritising regeneration schemes …

The government aims to save £3bn a year by selling properties, moving civil servants, and managing its estate better.
Today, prime minister Gordon Brown launched the government’s 70-page white paper “Putting the frontline first: smarter government” which aims to help government save an extra £3bn on top of those in the 2009 Budget. The aim is to help it reduce an annual deficit expected to be more than £175bn.
The government has set out measures for savings including:

Merging or abolishing 120 arm’s length bodies – or quangos – to save £500m a year.
Making …

The National Health Service is failing to learn from independent healthcare providers on how to manage its properties, a healthcare charity has warned.
Independent health charity the King’s Fund said in its 80-page report “Windmill 2009: NHS response to the financial storm” that NHS leaders need to set out their plans to deal with looming cuts in public sector spending. It said this should include working with independent healthcare providers in areas including property and estate management.
However, the report said the culture and procurement procedures within the NHS “conspire to preclude …

Councils need to cut annual spending by £11bn over the next four financial years, the Local Government Association has warned.
Speaking at the LGA’s annual conference yesterday, the association’s finance director Stephen Jones attempted to spell out the scale of cuts that would be needed to address a public sector annual budget deficit that could hit a record of £200bn in 2009/10 . He said £11bn would need to be cut from spending on services including schools, policing and roads each year.
This £11bn is more than 10% of the £105bn local authorities spend …

HM Revenue & Customs has not made the savings it forecast from a contract with Mapeley that expires in 2021, the National Audit Office has revealed.
Yesterday, central government auditor the NAO released a report on the 20-year deal HMRC predecessors Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise signed with Mapeley STEPS Contractor Limited in 2001. HMRC transferred 60% of its properties to Mapeley in that deal and planned to save £1.2bn.
The NAO said in the eight years so far the contract has cost £312m than was first forecast. It said …