If bent Labour Sandwell Council continue on their current track you are going to hear a lot about "the Preston Model". I will be writing on this again but it relates to, amongst other things, the procurement policies of a Labour Council in the northern sh*thole of Preston, a geographically isolated city in Lancashire. The basis of the "Model" is Trumpian. Rather than follow free market forces, protectionism will be applied instead. This means that when the Council needs to buy something it will not "procure" the thing nationally but will rig the tendering process in favour of local suppliers. Preston Labour mentioned yoghurt in a piece I heard on the radio. Instead of buying this for schools etc cheaply from national suppliers they bought direct from a local supplier instead. The gloop may have cost more but the idea is that the money will somehow "stay" in the area ie the local supplier will spend the profits locally rather than get the first plane to a sunny beach somewhere agreeable.
Now don't get me wrong - local suppliers should be much more involved in the procurement process. Indeed I have sent Cllr Chris Worsey some information on this. Many small businesses do NOT pitch for Council projects because they think they are too small to be considered and/or that the process is too complicated. I believe that Leader Yvonne Davies and Chris Worsey are actively looking at changing this misconception and that is to be commended.
If you are mindlessly wedded to a left-wing philosophy you will be anti-free market (despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of world economists believe protectionism to be harmful - a discussion for another day.) Preston has been hailed by "the left" (most of whom do not work or otherwise contribute to the economy) as an example of "Corbynomics" even though the Jezzatollah is an economic imbecile.
There are good aspects to the idea of local procurement not least in respect of environmental issues. Clearly there are less adverse transport effects from buying yoghurts down the road rather than from, say, a firm in Kent. On the other hand, protectionism begets more protectionism which - most economists say - harms the whole economy.
The comrades may be rushing to "twin" Preston's famous North End with Sandwell's very own "Bell End" but there are many problems and there is certainly a danger that crazed councillors will go "over the top". Sandwell is parochial enough as it is and it is not an isolated city in a predominately rural area like Preston but part of a sprawling conurbation. It will be absurd if this Labour shower (with a 45 year record of dismal failure already) try to block firms in the likes of Dudley or Walsall from the procurement process because they are beyond the borders of the benighted Borough! We shall see....
(I know former Labour Councillor Dave Hosell is a moron but he recently said on social media that only Sandwell-registered taxi drivers should be allowed on the dog-sh*t smeared streets of Sadders. Just imagine returning from a night-out in Brum and having to change cabs at "the border" lol!)
The biggest potential problem locally is fraud. In 45 years of Labour control the artificially-created Sandwell has become synonymous with fraud, cronyism, incompetence and corruption, particularly in recent times. Can you imagine what will happen if Labour say they won't accept lowest-price tenders but will accept more expensive deals with local "friends". Yvonne Davies has promised to "drain the swamp" of corruption in Sandwell but is meeting resistance from some councillors and senior staff (she is also being very selective eg she is very happy to shaft me where it suits.) This process is an open door for fraud and backhanders to comrades who push certain suppliers. And how will we - the public - ever know? Many of these deals will be done behind closed doors and any questioning of them from the likes of The Skidder Team or campaigners like Darryl Magher are likely to be rebuffed with allegations that the details cannot be supplied because of "commercial confidentiality." We have to hope that the new Tory MP's will be alert to all this and make sure bent Labour don't p*ss over locals yet again.....
The five years plus that this blog has been going have been marked by a virulent anti-business sentiment from the crazed comrades. Instead of encouraging wealth and job creation - which at the end of the day is the only way to tackle the sh*t-hole Borough's myriad social problems - Labour denigrates business, business people and capitalism in general. These so-called "socialists" bang on about austerity whereas Sadders had done extremely well from doing nothing itself but just holding out the begging bowl to central government - eg during the Blair/Brown years. Now that the giant money tap is being slowly turned off they are having to face the harsh reality of 45 years damage their negligence and ideological astigmatism has visited on the ghastly "six towns."
But they still cannot embrace commercial capitalism and thus, as at yesterday's Cabinet meeting, all procurement is now subject to extraneous "social" considerations or what I will call "redwashing." Instead of just doing a commercial deal the comrades are listing such things as charitable activity from tendering companies to salve their "socialist" consciences. Some of these ludicrous things were read out yesterday in respect of two contracts but the gist is that if you want a contract to, say, supply paint to the corrupt Labour Council you have to go and decorate Mrs Miggins's khazi first!
Once again this is not only nonsense - taxpayers just want good deals done at low prices - but is a charter for fraud. Councillors may insist on these "favours" for themselves, family, cronies or just to garner kudos (and thus votes) in their wards. (And, lest we forget, sections of the charity/non-profit sector in Sadders are riddled with Labour cronyism and corruption.)
We must also remember that Labour has form for sacking good employees (with pay-offs and gagging clauses) if they do not toe the Party line. Can the current crop of employees actually cope with the pressure they will be put under to sort out these dodgy deals?
A Case Study
Yesterday the Cabinet/Commode voted unanimously to give a contract for the supply of kitchen units etc to Richmond Furniture Limited (RFL) of Glossop, near Manchester. It was said at the meeting that Sandwell Labour had previously given the contract to Richmond Cabinet Company Limited (RCCL) of the same address but they had gone bust. Maybe a little alarm bell should have started to ring...
RCCL operated from a large leasehold (remember that) factory unit. The directors were Lesley Langdon, Gary Tootell and Lewis Tootell. The business got into difficulty and eventually went into administration via mega accountancy firm KMPG (you know the ones - they acted for Sandwell Council and "missed" a multi-million pound accounting "error" in the accounts for several years!) Alas, RCCL only rented their factory and the initial prognosis form KPMG was that the unsecured creditors would not get any of their money back - disastrous for other small businesses and their employees. Fair play to KPMG they have done a deal so that the contracts of RCCL could be completed by a new company under licence, RFL, who would use the same premises and equipment and it appears from the latest administration report that the small guys and gals who were to lose their money may now get at least something back (after KMPG have taken their fees charged at an extremely reasonable, er, £291 an hour plus VAT.)
The directors of RFL are Gary Tootell and Lewis Tootell (remember them?)
What a shame for the creditors of RCCL that there was not a big chunk of freehold land available for KMPG to sell or rent out to pay the creditors. As we have seen RCCL was only renting the large factory site - in fact from JTT Investments Limited. I am sure you know what is coming next but JTT Investments is still going which must be good news for its directors, er, Lesley Langdon and Gary Tootell! They made sure their ownership of the valuable site was ring-fenced. Now that's capitalism comrades!
All of the above is, of course, perfectly legal but it shows that folk should do "due diligence" before entering into commercial contracts. And we must assume that the comrades have done the same. Indeed they are specifically not put off by the past record of Mr Gary Tootell's other directorships:
Regency Group Limited - in liquidation;
Richmond Cabinet Company Limited (as above) - in administration;
Extrapure Limited - in liquidation;
Regency Kitchens Limited - dissolved;
JTT Investments - as above. Active and holding title to the factory site for Gary'n'Les.
Clearly Sandwell Councillors have great faith in this man. They can presumably ignore his track record because of their excellent dealings with his via RCCL. Which means that they must have been lucky as KPMG wrote this about that Company (whilst trying to sell it as a going concern "lol"):
"The Company has experienced declining trading performance......[due to]:
- loss-making contracts entered into by the company in the main contractor market;
- overspend on the fitting in the main conttractor market; and
- fluctuations in the volume of stock manufactured, which has led to inefficiences.
What can possibly go wrong? Will the new deal be a good one or a Tootell balls-up in true Sandwell Labour style?
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