Financial Performance Award
Awarded to the local authority that best demonstrated fiscal prudence and sound financial performance in the 2008-09 period. This award takes many budgetary factors into account, including population, pension fund investments, council tax rates, employee contracts etc.
2010 Winner: City of Edinburgh Council
The City of Edinburgh Council played a key role in supporting the local economy as the recession took hold within the city. The Finance Department's role was one of securing effective management of Council finances, in particular ensuring sound financial performance, fiscal prudence, achieving demonstrable efficiencies and working with partners.
While formulation of the 2009/10 budget applied a 2 per cent efficiencies requirement to all Departments, there was an increasing acknowledgement that this approach threatened to become untenable and that a more strategic approach was required. With this in mind, as part of the Achieving Excellence project, the Council has identified a specific strand within the 'Financial Management' theme relating to development of a longer-term financial plan, building upon earlier work undertaken in this area following a recommendation as part of the Council’s Best Value Audit.
By extending the budget planning process beyond the current three-year timeframe, a more systematic picture of service demands and pressures has emerged. This will provide a more comprehensive picture against which to develop strategic options to deliver the level of efficiencies required. The need for this more sophisticated approach has been hastened by the scale of the financial challenges the Council is likely to face over the next few years.
In 2008/09, the Treasury section has been able to manage the funds available in a way which has provided an excellent return to the Council whilst ensuring appropriate security of monies in line with the current Treasury Policy Statement. Although this has been a challenging economic climate to work in, by consistently being able to invest funds at interest rates which have been above the benchmark, additional income of £1.912 million has been received by the Council in 2008/09. These favourable interest rates have been obtained in part by investing long-term (up to a year) early in the financial year when interest rates were judged to be attractive. The annual return on pension fund investments compared to the benchmark was +7.4%.
A record £26.5 million of savings were delivered in 2008/09 across asset management (the purchase of the Council HQ Building secured substantial long-term savings and was awarded Scottish Property Deal of the Year), procurement (record savings of £5.58 million achieved, alongside roll-out of the regional Procurement Academy), shared services and improving processes. Focussing on customers and partners gained Customer Service Excellence for Edinburgh's Investment & Pensions Division. The council plans to achieve this for whole finance department in 2010.
Commended
Peterborough City Council
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
