HOUSING FINANCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

. Abrams, Fran Below the Breadline: Living on the Minimum Wage Profile Books 2002

. Elliott, Larry, Atkinson, Dan. The Gods that Failed: How blind faith in markets has cost us our future
pub. The Bodley Head London 2008 ISBN: 9781847920300
Published since the beginning of this financial year this gives an analysis of the 2008 credit crunch from the perspective of two English journalists and sets out the players of who is to blame.

. Murie, Alan: Forrest, Ray. Selling the Welfare State 1988, 1990
Where we learn that receipts from the Right to Buy up until the time of publication amounted to more than half of the total receipts from all privatisations by the Conservative Government.

Reeves, Maud Pember: Alexander, Sally. Round About a Pound a Week Virago Press Ltd 1990 ISBN: 0860680665
Based on a research programme carried out at the beggining of the 20th Century in Lambeth by the Women's Fabian Group into the lives of poor families where one member of the family was in generally in work and which had recently had a young baby. The title denotes the amount that they typically had to live on. Unlike the factory workers of a century earlier in the Midlands where only children and some women had most of the work, in South London in 1913 it was mostly only the adult males and they were consequently given a better diet so that they did not become too frail to work because then they would all starve. Chilling!

. Soros, George. The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and what it means
pub. Public Affairs: The Perseus Books Group 2008 ISBN: 978-1-58648-683-9
"Boom-Bust processes arise out of a reflexive interaction between a prevailing trend and a prevailing misconception." Published since the beginning of this financial year George Soros extends his annalysis beyond examination of the Sub-Prime Mortgage Market in the US to what he terms the Super Bubble Hypothesis the roots of which he traces back to the Greast Depression from which time central banks and World powers when threatened with collapse have always tended to step in to bail out banks and institiutions creating an asymetric incentive for credit expansion or moral hazard, then Globalisation makes it difficult to regualate and almost impossible to tax financial markets. Finally there is reliance on the false primise that markets tend to equillibrium - what Soros terms "Market Fundamentalism"
As the days go by we see how relevant this analysis is as central banks pump more money into the World Economy resulting to rising commodity prices whilst people are loosing their jobs.

. Toynbee, Polly. Hard Work: Life in Low Pay Britain Bloomsbury 2003

. Financing Council Housing (a download)
The Audit Commission June 2005 A report on the impact of the national system of finance on the government's objectives for council housing Date 22 Jun 2005

Support for the 'Fourth Option' for Council Housing (a download)
Report produced by the House of Commons Council Housing Group and available via Defend Council Housing
The Fourth option is 'Prudential Borrowing'. This is of the same nature as is used by commercial property companies who can borrow against the collateral of the equity in the property that they own and the future rental income that they are likely to bring. There are of course some restrictions on this. Introduced since the 2001 Local Government White Paper "Strong Local Leadership - Quality Public Services" it enables local authorities to borrow for capital investment without having to seek permission from Central Government, "subject to this being prudent and affordable"
It is generally understood that it is not thought to be prudent if a local authority has outstanding debt. This borrowing is outside of the normal route for council housing finance and consequently is not 'supported borrowing'. Supported borrowing is cheaper borrowing for a local authority in that the support given is that Central Government pays the interest. See also Prudential borrowing becomes a way of life Public Servant Daily Friday, January 12, 2007

Communities & Local Government. . Guidance on Stock Valuation for Resource Accounting. Updated and Revised
Also sets out the rate of return expected on the capital investment tied up in council housing stock.

Communities & Local Government. . Local Government Finance Statistics. last updated 2006 November
National statistics on local authority expenditure for each year back to 2000. Masses of information about the workings of local government.

Communities & Local Government. . Local Government Finance Statistics. released 2007 March 28th.
Local Government Finance: Council Taxes 2007/08.

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Publications

PFI Transactions
Local Authority Accounting Panel:Bulletin 45

Resource Accounting in the HRA
Shadow Accounting Guidance (England) 2000 - 2001
Local Authority Accounting Panel: Bulletin 47
The Government decided to introduce, in England, a form of resource accounting in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) from 1 April 2001.
Appendix to Bulletin 47

Resource Accounting in the HRA (England)
Shadow Accounting Guidance 2000 - 2002 MRA and Depreciation
Local Authority Accounting Panel: Bulletin 48
Appendix to Bulletin 48

The Prudential Code for Capital Finance

The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities (2003) £50
The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities: Road Testing Manual (2003) £85
The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities: Guidance Notes for Practitioners (2004) (NEW PURCHASERS) £195
The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities: Guidance Notes for Practitioners (2004) (EXISTING PURCHASERS OF INTERIM GUIDANCE NOTES) £160

Code of Practice for Treasury Management

Guidance for Smaller Public Service Organisations on the Application of the CIPFA Code of Practice for Treasury Management in the Public Services (2004) £49.50
Treasury Management in the Public Services: Guidance Notes for Local Authorities including Police Authorities and Fire Authorities (Fully Revised Second Edition 2006) (2006) £ 45.00
Treasury Management in the Public Services: Code of Practice and Cross-Sectoral Guidance Notes (2001) £97.50
Introduction to Treasury Management in Local Government £ 415.00


updated 2008 November 20th.