| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Boston Manor Park Gates still closed one week on from music event | |
| Posted by: | Joseph Gerald Bourke | |
| Date/Time: | 10/05/18 17:22:00 |
| Guy, “Carillion's profit margin helps but there are still enormous financial challenges.” this is a classic example of spurious policies based on flawed ideologies. As an experienced accountant, you should know only too well that there is a cost of capital required to fund the need for the land, buildings, plant and equipment necessary to deliver public services. When that capital is provided by shareholders (often occupational and private pension funds in which residents save for retirement) the cost of capital comes in the form of profits and dividends that in turn serve to pay the pensions of retirees or is reinvested in new capital formation. If capital is provided by local businesses and residents it is financed via local and national taxes. Carillion’s problems reportedly have arisen primarily from bidding too keenly for public service contracts and not making sufficient profits to maintain the solvency of the business. Their offices at Westlink House in Brentford have been a workplace for many locals over decades. The jury is still out on Lampton 360. The company has yet to demonstrate that it has the wherewithal to efficiently deliver local services. The record so far (judging by the very significant cost overruns on the recycling enterprise) is far from an unqualified success. I don’t doubt the council faces financial challenges as a consequence of cuts in central government grants and if services can be delivered nore efficiently in-house that is what should be done. However, far greater long-term damage is wrought by the wholesale disposal of public land around the borough by the local council acting (via Lamoton 360) as a private developer. Land that is badly needed for the provision of council housing, schools and youth and community services among myriad other needs for public service provision. |