So it seems that Haringey Council has invested £37 million in Icelandic banks – and the Chancellor (in his statement earlier this week) made it pretty clear that councils – who he called ‘informed corporate investors’ – could go swing.
I immediately contacted Alistair Darling to ask that he not let Haringey residents suffer as a result.
I am concerned that no information as to details of what is included in the investments is being allowed to me or Robert Gorrie (Liberal Democrat Council Group leader). All the Chief Exec will say that the problem is ‘manageable’ and that the Local Government Association is acting for all involved councils.
Haringey Council is not alone. A hundred councils, police authorities and charities are in similar positions – although Haringey’s exposure is the largest in London.
The Prime Minister appears to have gone to war with Iceland – freezing its assets here by using a law from the 2001 terrorist act. Iceland is not best pleased.
Lynne Featherstone 
Lynne – the freezing orders are by Statutory Instruments laid before the house. Therefore it is open to an MP to oppose them.
What committees is he on? Robert should be entitled to that information.I’d get on to ALDC who have the details of statute and cases to quote.
When I needed to invest some money (for retirement) in an ISA and IceSave was top of the interest rate tables, it was blatantly obvious to me that a country the size of Iceland could not back up a bank with world-scale ambitions. So I put my money elsewhere. If a mere ignoramus like me could spot what The Real Hustle calls an “if it seems too good to be true it probably is”, council officials should be able to do so too. Call a spade a spade. Transport for London is incompetent, and so apparently is Haringey Council. (Anonymous post ‘cos I don’t want to seem boastful!)
It is becoming clearer and clearer that the warnings about Icelandic banks were being posted over 6 months ago. Those LAs that relied solely on the credit rating agencies (as has been apparent from their bleating on air), and their advisers who failed to survey all the available information, are culpable in the losses – claims should be laid by LAs against the incompetent advisers. It is another piece of evidence that outsourcing has been handled incompetently – the officers handling procurement too often don’t have the necessary expertise.
The Independent reported today that Haringey invested £5m just last week in Iceland, after one of the banks there had already gone bust. It hardly builds much confidence in their management of my council tax. I hope someone in the council accounts for this.
As read on the Net………COUNCILS INVESTED £1BN IN TINY VOLCANO SURROUNDED BY FISH LOCAL authorities across the UK were yesterday stunned to discover that Iceland is nothing more than a volcano surrounded by two million haddock.As the volcano’s banks refused to pay out, councils said they were convinced Iceland was a small, landlocked country next to Belgium with a long history of expert financial management.But after 15 minutes on the internet they confirmed it was nothing more than a slab of stinking lava populated by a handful of wilfully eccentric musicians and half a dozen heavily bearded trawler captains.Julian Cook, director of finance at the Local Government Association, said: “I meant Luxembourg – shit!”I suppose the haddock-shaped piece of lava with every new account was probably a clue.”Mr Cook is now demanding £1bn of taxpayers’ money in compensation for losing £1bn of taxpayers’ money.He added: “When the taxpayer is exposed in this way it is only right that central government should step in with its own funds, wherever they come from.”But the Treasury has so far refused, criticising the councils for investing huge amounts of public money in badly run banks