December 3: Could a wait for Icelandic cash benefit Kent
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Here’s a teaser. Why would it be good for
KCC if it took longer to recoup some of the
£47million stuck in Icelandic banks?
Most authorities have been
desperate to get their cash back at the earliest opportunity, not
least so they can avoid headlines reminding them of the fact they
haven’t.
But in the case of one of the
banks, it seems a longer wait might just pay dividends.
The bank –
Heritable – had extensive property assets in the
UK – including London. While the property market remains fairly
shaky, it is back on the rise, particularly in the
capital.
The greater the value of the
bank’s assets, the better it is for creditors like KCC, which has
estimated that it will get back about 80 per cent of its
stake.
If the upward trend in property
values continues, then KCC can potentially look forward to getting
back a little more than it might have initially anticipated
although it is being rather cautious about saying too
much.
Of course, this might go another
way. If the recession falters or we have a "double dip" then it
might be that property values fall again just at the time
administrators are sorting out who gets what.
But at least it’s a bit of a
silver – or should that be – krona - lining.
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Meanwhile, Cllr Keith Ferrin – a
former cabinet member – took one or two people by surprise at a
meeting this week when he suggested that KCC ought to be taking a
few more risks with its investments.
His thesis was that while it was
all very well adopting a safety first approach and sticking the
council’s money with the Treasury, the rate of return is rather
meagre at 0.25 per cent.
Now the Government had stepped
in and was providing support for various British banks, better
deals were to be had elsewhere, he argued.
It didn’t go down terribly well
(not that it will bother Keith) but I suppose he had a
point.
But KCC is adopting a very risk
averse approach to this issue and after all the headlines it has
endured over the matter, you can understand why. And some might say
that it was precisely because KCC took risks that landed
it in trouble in the first place.
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It was hailed as a scheme that would make Kent a
world leader in the challenge to find new ways of countering global
warming and find alternatives to fossil fuels.
How Kent could fuel the world - read our original story
here>>
So what has happened to the
efforts to establish Kent as the location for pioneering
"global centre for non-food crops" capable of
producing vast quantities of soya beans to create bio-diesel and
ethanol?
With the world's attention
focused on the Copenhagen summit, it seems an opportune time to
ask.
It seems the grand plan – mooted
as long ago as 2005 and at one stage involving the United Nations
and a key part of the controversial plan for a scientific
centre at Wye College - has been quietly dropped.
The proposal had been among a
series of targets KCC aimed to achieve by next year, as set out in
its "Towards 2010" document.
But I see that progress has been
about as rapid as a tractor running on soya beans rather than a
Ferrari on ethanol, based on a report setting out how the council
is progressing.
The report records:
"NB It has been agreed that progress against
Target 44 (Establish a Global Centre in Kent that will lead the
world in developing crops toprovide energy, medicines and other
products) will no longer be separately reported as the world has
changed since the original Towards 2010 concept for a Global Centre
for non-food crops was first proposed and this target will not now
be achieved."
Ah, the world is changing....indeed it
is.
Thursday, December 03 2009
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