Saturday 19 May 2012

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Speakers include

Colm McCarthy
Göran Persson
Ex-Swedish PM who beat the deficit and transformed Sweden's public services.
Andrew Rawnsley
Chief Political Commentator and Associate Editor of The Observer.
Sir Nicholas Montagu
Led the Inland Revenue through the greatest changes in its entire 200 year history.

Speakers materials

Conference speakers

Access speaker materials and news coverage of CIPFA annual conference from this page.

Plenary speakers

Lessons from Japan’s great recession

In the opening speech for CIPFA conference 2011, economist Richard Koo warned that the UK needs to heed lessons from Japan. He argued that the deficit reduction measures currently underway in the UK mirror the measures taken by Japan’s government – measures that contributed to its protracted recession.

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The UK’s public finances: how are we doing?

Following Richard Koo’s analysis of the global economic position, Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies focused in on the UK position. He set out the scale of the deficit, the public spending challenges to come, and the impact of the recession on UK households.

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The fairness debate: with limited resources, can fairness be achieved?

In our debate on fairness in resourcing the public services, delegates heard from three distinctive viewpoints. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Emma Stone outlined the evidence-based approach, Scope’s Richard Hawkes gave the view from the charity sector, and Redbridge’s Councillor Ian Bond shared his experience in making tough spending choices in a London Borough.

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Beyond the rhetoric: can the Big Society really deliver?

Chaired with aplomb by The Guardian’s Patrick Butler, day one of CIPFA conference closed with an exceptional debate on the Big Society. Leading Big Society exponent Philip Blond outlined the conditions that he believes create the need to seek greater community engagement in how UK societies operate and manage public services. In contrast, writer Toby Young gave a compelling account of his experience with bureaucracy in establishing the West London Free School.

Holding the accounts to account

Day two of CIPFA conference opened with the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, sharing her analysis of transparency and accountability in the age of austerity.

Mrs Hodge commented on how CIPFA members’ skills will be essential in keeping track of spending as the mix of public service providers grows more fragmented, adding that:

‘Your role is hugely important now in following the pound and ensuring value for money. We need you to be at the heart of work in the public sector to ensure value for money. Our job is to follow the money and your job is to help us.’

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Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

In a keynote speech to CIPFA conference, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles called for ‘entrepreneurial zeal’ on the part of public sector finance directors. He went on to announce that the new wave of transparency would call for tenders and contracts worth more than £500 to be published online, and lauded the work of local bloggers in highlighting inefficiency in public spending.

Read the full speech here

Tough lessons from the frontlines of the American recession

Stephanie Neely, elected treasurer of the US city of Chicago, told CIPFA conference that the city was trying to ask taxpayers how many services they were willing to give up in order to close the city's $700m deficit.

This is expected to reach $1bn in a few years, and will lead to ‘some extremely difficult choices that will drastically change Chicago for the next generation’, she said.

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The state of localism

CIPFA conference 2011 was closed by leading public services thinker, Lord Bichard.

Lord Bichard argued that localism can only be achieved if central goverment ceases making policy and setting targets in silos.

He went on to suggest that the coalition Government’s approach to public service reform lacks coherence, adding that ‘there's no convincing vision or convincing strategy on public service reform yet’.

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