Iceland deals another blow to Kent County Council

Having spent a few days updating the Kent Green Party website, I found myself adding a page on ethical investments, an issue that we have worked hard to get Kent County Council to adopt. We had some success last year after we embarrased them in the media with a number of well chosen pieces about the type of companies the council had its money in, arms, tobacco etc.

The big story with Kent County Council and money is of course the fiasco of losing £47m to the Icelandic banking collapse. News out yesterday shows that Icelanders are fighting hard to not repay their debts with 25% of voters signing a petition to their parliament - I'm sure we would all do the same in their shoes. This is another blow for KCC and for Kent in general. Either taxpayers will have to stump up the misssing millions or KCC will have to cut services.

Kent County Council have acted like a greed hungry corporation, investing money for the greatest profit above all else. As the banking house of cards tumbled, it got its fingers burnt, but the real scandal should be that it continues to use public money to fund death, oppression and climate change.

The council is in the ideal position to put its money into projects that would benefit people and the environment. Acting in the public interest, rather than as a greedy corporation is long overdue but unlikely. Remember, 74 of the 84 Kent County Councillors are Conservative.

Credit Union for Kent - Letter to the Kent on Sunday

Letter to the Kent on Sunday

Dear Editor,

It is good news that Kent County Council is finally going to set up a Kent wide Credit Union. Publicly owned and democratically controlled banking is the only way forward for banking. We have all witnessed what happens when you let profits and greed take control of an unregulated economic system and KCC has first hand experience of this with its huge losses in Iceland. Let us hope, therefore, that they have learned their lesson on how to look after public money when they open the credit union.

Of course, KCC should do a lot more good than just providing savings and loans. A fully functioning, local government run bank for the people of Kent would be useful to many and hopefully more safe that most of the high street ones.

KCC should also move many of its own investments away from unethical companies such as those that manufacture arms and tobacco, and invest in green industries. Investing in energy saving schemes, producing renewable energy, effective public transport and local food production will not just provide a more healthy return on investments but will also ensure a better future for us all while providing much needed jobs now.

Stuart Jeffery
Green Party general election candidate for Maidstone and the Weald

KCC's investments

Just realised that KCC's largest holdings as at 31 March 08 were not on my blog. This is the list:

United Kingdom	£000		Japan	£000
Invesco Perpetual Income Fund	237,034		Mitsui & Co	4,421
Vodaphone Group	36,353		Canon	3,613
Glaxosmithkline	29,749		Nissan Motor	3,107
Royal Dutch Shell	28,038		Japan Tobacco	2,699
BG Group	27,714		Rakuten	1,998
HSBC Holdings	25,302		Asahi Breweries	1,991
Anglo American	23,239		JFE Holdings	1,821
BP Amoco	21,810		Keyence	1,657
Unilever	20,493		Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance	1,644
Royal Bank of Scotland	16,194		Kyocera	1,557
Standard Chartered	15,626
Prudential	13,472		Europe
BAES Systems	13,416		Nestle	8,105
Barclays	12,884		Total	8,094
Centrica	12,592		Investor	5,810
BT Group	12,571		Svenskahandelsbank	5,494
Astrazeneca	11,196		Celesio	5,241
Johnson Matthey	10,716		Sanofi-Aventis	5,212
Legal & General	10,511		UBS	4,790
Soc Gen UK Smaller Cos Inc Fund	9,895		Heineken	4,539
Balfour Beatty	9,621		Credit Suisse	4,538
Pearson	8,899		Atlas Copco	4,073
British American Tobacco	8,668		Essilor	3,491
Smiths Group	8,504		Securitas	3,487
Rio Tinto	7,960		E.ON	3,200
Royal Sun Alliance	7,202		Geberit	3,099
Whitbread	7,027		Adidas-Salomon	3,017
ICAP	6,911		SAP	3,009
Henderson Secondary PFI Fund II	6,717		CRH	2,828
			Allied Irish Bank	2,798
			Deutsche Boerse	2,766
North America
Pepsico	8,409		Pacific/Other
Schlumberger	8,338		GMO Developed World Equity Fund	152,692
Walgreen	7,862		Schroder GAV Unit Trust	112,574
Phillip Morris	7,812		GMO Emerging Markets Fund	7,767
Praxair	6,978		Petrol Brasileiros	7,583
Microsoft	6,661		Samsung	7,052
Conocophillips	6,070		BHP Billiton	5,137
EOG Resources	5,823		Cia Vale Rio Doce	5,101
Wal-mart Stores	5,598		Reliance Inds	4,803
Well Point	5,330		America Movil	4,746
			Bnc Itau	4,337
Arms	13,416
Oil	65,525
Tobacco	19,179
Zimbabwe	109,557

Totally unethical investment

This is from the excellent 'Save-Kent' site:

"WE ALL KNOW that the oil we use is bad news, but some is fuels is worse than others.

This is about Burma/Myanmar. French oil giant TOTAL Oil is in business with Burma's brutal military dictatorship. Its joint venture in the Yadana gas project in southern Burma earns the military regime hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Find out at the Burma Campaign UK."

TOTAL is one of the companies that KCC like to invest in. As at March 31, 2008 the had £8 million in TOTAL shares. Our campaign against un-ethical investments has has some success and it will be interesting to see whether KCC hang on to theses shares.

As always, I encourage everyone to make their voices heard. Write to the Superannuation Committee at Kent County Council, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent and tell them what you think.

Kent County Council investment woes will hit services

Kent County Council has investments of over £50 million in three Icelandic financial institutions. The Government is suggesting it will not compensate local councils for any losses incurred as a result of such investments (1).

Stuart Jeffery, Kent’s Green Party’s Campaigns Officer, comments:

“Kent County Council should have been more careful. The £50 million in investments in three Icelandic financial institutions is the largest exposure of all the UK local councils and other public bodies which invested in Iceland’s collapsing banks. Unfortunately, Kent council tax payers may now have to suffer for the County Council’s mistakes, since the Government may not be willing to cover all of the shortfall. Bearing in mind, Conservative pledges not to increase council taxes, taxpayers are likely to suffer through severe cuts to services. Kent’s people may lose out even further as the financial crisis continues to impact upon spending and employment. To move quickly away from recession, we need a ‘Green New Deal.’(2) This would require:

• Massive investment in renewable energy and wider environmental transformation in the UK, leading to,
• The creation of thousands of new ‘green collar’ jobs
• Reining in reckless aspects of the finance sector but making low-cost capital available to fund the UK’s green economic shift
• Building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture, and unions to put the interests of the real economy ahead of those of footloose finance.

“Kent County Council needs to clean up its investments in general. It is still investing in tobacco and arms sales. A sustainable investment programme based on the Green New Deal ideas must include a commitment to ethical investment for the long-term.”

Ends

Notes:

1. KCC, according to the Guardian, have investments in three Icelandic financial institutions of £50 million in total making them the most exposed of only 20 local councils to have Iceland-based funds.
See also Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4910126.ece
which notes: Kent County Council said that it had £50 million deposited in Icelandic banks £15 million with Glitnir Bank, £17 million with Landsbanki and just over £18 million in its British subsidiary, Heritable.
ditto the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3162204/Financial-crisis-Turmoil-in-Iceland-puts-councils-funds-at-risk.html
2. Caroline Lucas MEP participated in the team which created the Green New Deal report, available at the New Economics Foundation website: http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/