West End Letters: Icelandic Bank Crisis | Town Hall

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 24 October 2008

Bank crisis no threat to services

• CONTRARY to Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg’s claims, I would like to reassure your readers that there is absolutely no threat to front-line services following the Icelandic bank crisis (Lost in Iceland? Town Hall tries to explain £17m investment bungle, October 17).
While these are clearly very challenging economic times, thanks to many years of careful fiscal planning Westminster is in a strong financial position and residents will not see any reduction in their services as a result of this.
Moreover, we also have no intention of raising council tax, either, because of this situation. Indeed, it is through our drive for efficiency that we are able to deliver the second lowest council tax rate in the country.
It’s also important to make clear that at the time we deposited money in Iceland, the council’s financial advisers Sector Treasury Services, based on the credit ratings from Moody’s and Fitch, supported continuing investment in Landsbanki and its UK subsidiary Heritable.
Westminster Council is by no means unique in basing its investments on such credit ratings and this is very much standard financial practice for local authorities and other organisations throughout the UK.
As such, we remain confident that our investment strategy is firmly in accordance with government guidelines and in line with the council’s treasury management strategy.
Nevertheless, to further reassure our residents, we will conduct a wide-ranging independent review to examine the exact circumstances surrounding the council’s decision to invest in Iceland.
We continue to review our investments on a daily basis and are working with the Treasury and the Local Government Association to recover the deposits.
CLLR MELVYN CAPLAN
Cabinet Member for Finance

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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