So says one witty commenter about the news that Barnet council spent 1.5 million pounds getting 1.4 million in savings:
The Conservative-controlled north London council has committed to spending £1.5m this financial year on a much-hyped reform programme to help close a yawning budget gap, but it is on course to recoup just £1.4m in savings in the year.
The council’s funding shortfall is set to hit £15m next year, and the borough has tried to innovate through its “One Barnet” programme. This includes paying to develop a system of “life coaches” to persuade residents to reduce dependence on the state, appointing business consultants to help town hall officials and even opening a library in a branch of Starbucks in a pilot which could result in the closure of some library buildings.
The programme is budgeted to deliver savings of £13m a year by 2014, about a third of the total cuts planned by the council. It had been projected to save £3m by the end of the financial year, but Lynne Hillan, council leader, has now admitted the savings will be less than half of that.
Typical faux cost cutting scheme, which all seem to go a little bit like this:
- We must cut costs!
- Hire overpaid consultants
- ????
- Profit!
I mustn’t be too outraged; if it weren’t for dubious governmental cost cutting campaigns like this, think how tight the job market for IT consultants would be… One interesting detail, as Jamie noticed the guy most responsible for this scheme also managed to invest quite a lot of council money in Icelandic banks — aren’t you glad the party of business is in government now?