Be more commercial to bring in more money Calderdale Council is urged

In times when it is more difficult for Calderdale Council to balance its books and cutting services was likely, there were areas of its work where it could bring more money in, with some councillors suggesting how this might be done, raising questions with Cabinet members at the final full council meeting of the year.

Coun George Robinson (Con, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe) said it was well known the council disposed of assets such as buildings and land to bring in revenue.

But it should change tack to bring in more cash, he said.

“My theory is the council should not only be selling sites but also developing sites ourselves.

“If we develop a site ourselves, the homes, we can sell the site for ten times the money we would just selling sites.

“If the council is selling off the family silver we have a duty to maximise receipts from sites,” he said.

Cabinet member for Regeneration and Strategy, Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said Coun Robertson made a good point – the council had assets, more than 300 buildings and small areas of land, but queried some of his figures.

The council did develop some building in some ways, for example creating a children’s home of its own to save the council a lot of money on external placements, she said.

Coun Colin Raistrick (Ind, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe), who chairs the council’s Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Board, also said commercialisation should be applied and picked up on the children’s home issue.

He said Cabinet member portfolio holder Coun Adam Wilkinson (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) in his report had highlighted a Competition and Markets Authority interim report on children’s social care which outlined significant concerns about the availability of placements and the profits of private providers.

One specialised care place for one child had cost £22,000, said Coun Raistrick, and the council was showing it could develop homes itself.

“We are building some residential homes but won’t have places for all children we are looking after, so shouldn’t we get even more, and even market them out?” he said.

It was an opportunity for commercialisation, using reserves to buy property for homes and the council still having the property asset.

The council had shown it could do a good job developing good homes to do the best for looked after children.

“It is a skill we have got that we can use – do we have this ambition?” he said.

But Coun Wilkinson said the problem was that pressure on local services would result and also finding the right properties could be difficult.

“We are looking at two new residential homes and finding the second one of the two is proving quite challenging.

“We are actually having to look at a new build or look just over the border.

“We have been searching for months to find a suitable property – it is not as simple as you have made it sound, but the ambition is there,” he said.

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