An Administrator Calls

[Miss Demeanour]

Gather your troops ~ read them the message and all go to the pub for lunch.

Good idea Snoops - but then I'd have to buy the 1st round and theres nearly 40 of the buggers   

I will buy some biscuits / cakes / sweeties instead

[Nick]

Oh no poor Mrs Nick - very worrying times   

As you know we are in the same process- there has been a very supportive message sent to managers this morning asking them to speak to their teams and convey the following message:-

Over the next couple of years the council needs to save around £30million to adjust to the new economic climate....as part of this we need to be honest and say that up to 400 colleagues will be leaving the council. There will be compulsory redundancies. The majority of these will be where there are comparitively low levels of performance or our priorities have changed. Some very tough choices will need to be made and prolonging the status quo just isn't an option

Shall I do that before or after lunch 

Well at least they are being direct. The bullshit management speak in the stuff she has shown me has to be seen to be disbelieved 

[Snoopy]

Southampton City Council administer a population of 231200 according to latest available figures (2007)
Denbighshire County Council administer a population of 97000 according to latest available figures (2007)

Southampton City Council say they employ some 20,000 staff across all departments (I expect there may be some areas that devolve to Hampshire county Council for administration)
Denbighshire County Council tells me that they employ 23,000 staff (this does not include anyone employed by town councils within the county)

I obtained these figures a few months ago for a planned article in the local magazine about value for money/council tax etc but having got the numbers my theory that Southampton and Denbighshire had roughly similar populations and responsibilities was not accurate enough to use them so I went about the article from a different direction.
The reason for quoting them here is to show the size of council staffing by comparison with population and to put into perspective the number of redundancies mentioned by Miss D. Frankly 400 from a local authority payroll is a very small number of people and not something that would concern me overmuch if I were employed by that particular council.

It is, of course, indicative of opportunistic pruning that can be blamed on "external pressures" rather than admitting that they have allowed some dead wood to be carried by local tax payers for too long.

[Pastis]

As you know we are in the same process- there has been a very supportive message sent to managers this morning asking them to speak to their teams and convey the following message:-

Over the next couple of years the council needs to save around £30million to adjust to the new economic climate....as part of this we need to be honest and say that up to 400 colleagues will be leaving the council. There will be compulsory redundancies. The majority of these will be where there are comparitively low levels of performance or our priorities have changed. Some very tough choices will need to be made and prolonging the status quo just isn't an option

Shall I do that before or after lunch 

As Nick said, I think that's a very direct announcement (unlike twisty turny thing that is the Cabinet!) but none the less bad news.
Can only hope that they start pruning the "Five-a-day veg advisory support staff" first, closely followed by the folk that maintain all the surveillance cameras 

[Miss Demeanour]

Southampton City Council administer a population of 231200 according to latest available figures (2007)
Denbighshire County Council administer a population of 97000 according to latest available figures (2007)

Southampton City Council say they employ some 20,000 staff across all departments (I expect there may be some areas that devolve to Hampshire county Council for administration)
Denbighshire County Council tells me that they employ 23,000 staff (this does not include anyone employed by town councils within the county)

I obtained these figures a few months ago for a planned article in the local magazine about value for money/council tax etc but having got the numbers my theory that Southampton and Denbighshire had roughly similar populations and responsibilities was not accurate enough to use them so I went about the article from a different direction.
The reason for quoting them here is to show the size of council staffing by comparison with population and to put into perspective the number of redundancies mentioned by Miss D. Frankly 400 from a local authority payroll is a very small number of people and not something that would concern me overmuch if I were employed by that particular council.

It is, of course, indicative of opportunistic pruning that can be blamed on "external pressures" rather than admitting that they have allowed some dead wood to be carried by local tax payers for too long.

We have just over 2600 staff - this equates to nearly  a fifth 

[Nick]

Just saw my heighbour off to a tribunal about contsructive dismissal (= money saving cuts). She hope for £30K tax free.

It is all around us 

[Snoopy]

Southampton City Council administer a population of 231200 according to latest available figures (2007)
Denbighshire County Council administer a population of 97000 according to latest available figures (2007)

Southampton City Council say they employ some 20,000 staff across all departments (I expect there may be some areas that devolve to Hampshire county Council for administration)
Denbighshire County Council tells me that they employ 23,000 staff (this does not include anyone employed by town councils within the county)

I obtained these figures a few months ago for a planned article in the local magazine about value for money/council tax etc but having got the numbers my theory that Southampton and Denbighshire had roughly similar populations and responsibilities was not accurate enough to use them so I went about the article from a different direction.
The reason for quoting them here is to show the size of council staffing by comparison with population and to put into perspective the number of redundancies mentioned by Miss D. Frankly 400 from a local authority payroll is a very small number of people and not something that would concern me overmuch if I were employed by that particular council.

It is, of course, indicative of opportunistic pruning that can be blamed on "external pressures" rather than admitting that they have allowed some dead wood to be carried by local tax payers for too long.

We have just over 2600 staff - this equates to nearly  a fifth 

What is this ~ A Parish Council?

Closer to a 7th actually

[Miss Demeanour]

Closer to a 7th actually

Do you fancy a non existent job in Finance 

[Snoopy]

Closer to a 7th actually

Do you fancy a non existent job in Finance 

You can't afford me 

[Miss Demeanour]

Daily Bonio wasn't it 

[Nick]

He'd be lucky 

[Snoopy]

Daily Bonio wasn't it 

Yes ~ I read that without fail 

[Nick]

You read the SUN?

[Snoopy]

You must be thinking of the Daily Boner 

[Snoopy]

Seriously though : Sunday Times, towards the end of a long article about Lloyds Bank quotes the following as a demonstration of just how far this Government has taken us into the debt owning market of busted banks.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5864836.ece

The public’s portfolio

What the taxpayer owns

Northern Rock – 100% state owned

Bradford & Bingley – mortgage book worth £50 billion

Royal Bank of Scotland – 75% of voting shares

Lloyds Banking Group (including HBOS)– up to 77% of voting shares

HSBC, Barclays, Abbey National and Nationwide are the main high street institutions still in private hands
My Notes: Don't forget that HSBC used to be the Midland Bank that includes First Direct and is now part of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation ~ they have serious bad debt troubles of their own that can only get worse as the Chinese economy, based mainly on exports to the US and Europe which are drying up faster than the Sahara, sinks toward bankruptcy. Abbey National is own wholly by Bank Santander, a Spanish bank that also owns GE Money another large sub-prime mortgage company with major problems in the UK. Bank Santander have been agressively aquisitive in recent years but the Spanish economy is a basket case as property values drop through the floor and people rush to get out. The writer seems to have conveniently forgotten the Co-operative Bank to which organisation the Labour Party owes many millions in overdraft facilities. I am not sure why the writer in the Times failed to mention the facts I have added in red, nor am I sure quite what the writer means by "In Private Hands" ~ there is no such thing in banking as what we as taxpayers don't now own we surely do own as shareholders via our pension plans etc.

How yesterday's Lloyds deal hands us the keys to British business

Both Lloyds and HBOS have been very acquisitive in private equity investment over the past decade, entering into partnerships which mean they part-own – or rather, we do – a string of household names.

They include: House of Fraser, department stores McCarthy & Stone, housebuilder HSS Hire, tool hire chain Vue, cinema chain Crest Nicholson, housebuilder Alternative Hotel Group MacDonald Hotels David Lloyd Leisure, fitness clubs American Golf, sports goods St Tropez, beauty products Robinia, specialist care homes Leasedrive Velo, car fleet hire Kidsunlimited, day nurseries British Salt, salt products producer Snell & Wilcox, broadcasting technology GVA Grimley, property consultant

And let us not forget that the Royal Bank of Scotland includes Nat West Bank that among other things also owns DP Dance's favourite bank Coutts