Lack of spending clarity by Government hitting locally
Nobody knows quite what’s happening with public finances at the moment.
The Government is keen to boast that it has pumped money into capital expenditure, not just to improve our schools and hospitals but also to help drag Britain out of recession.
But how much cash has been provided, and how much will be available in the future, is increasingly unclear.
While accusing the Tories of planning cuts, the current administration appears to be cutting back on spending itself, where possible.
This needn’t be a criticism. With debts mounting, public spending does need to be kept under control.
But it does lead to confusion about how much money will be available in future years for capital expenditure.
Now, it seems this lack of clarity is affecting key projects at a local level. The planned new hospital for West Birmingham and the Black Country will be expensive, at £484 million.
But it is designed to create a world-class facility replacing two older sites which are no longer up to scratch.
Managers thought they had the green light to press ahead with the scheme – but are still waiting for final approval from the Department of Health.
It seems that long-term spending plans are still in a state of flux, as the Government tries to determine the effect of the credit crunch on public finances.
But Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust has already spent substantial sums on the project, and closed some existing services in preparation for the new hospital’s opening.
There are uncomfortable parallels with the case of colleges, such as Bournville College in Birmingham, which were given approval for ambitious refurbishment schemes, only to be told the money wasn’t available after all.
In some cases, the colleges had already spent millions of pounds.
One cannot blame the Government for the precarious state of the economy, or the difficulty in predicting when things are likely to get better.
However, it does seem as if attempts to draw up credible spending plans have been hampered by conflict within the Cabinet, as the likes of Education Secretary Ed Balls clash with the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and by a desire to cover up spending cuts, in order to present clear blue water between Labour and the Conservatives.
The Department of Health should stop messing about and give Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust approval as soon as possible.
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