Conference Costing at least £699 - Value for money?

At Monday evening's Housing Committee there was a proposal to send up to two councillors to the  Chartered Institute of Housing Conference.  This event is taking place at the SECC in Glasgow and the delegate cost is £699 per person, there would also be travel and accommodation costs on top of this.  Last year the council spent nearly £5000 on this event.

I am sure that there are elements of this event which are worthwhile but I find it hard to justify such expenditure.  Later this week the council will be setting its budget and making severe cuts.  There are proposals to take away support for pupils in the early years of primary school for example, how can you justify sending councillors to a conference at this cost at the same time?

SNP Councillors were eager to justify such expenditure, it is essential for councillors to attend conferences to learn about policy, apparently.  I do wonder if this is such an important conference which will make a difference to our understanding of housing policy why we are not all being sent to this conference.

I think we should take a stand and say that such expenditure is beyond the pale.