The Council Tax bills for 2008/9 have arrived.
In many ways, this is what it’s all about.
I had a few thoughts on the (helpful) statement sent out with the bills:
a) The total spending of the Council is well over £1/2 a billion pounds. Central Government and business rates reduce the amount they then have to collect from residents. But the total spending is a lot of money. It’s £2,500 for each adult in the County. It’s more than twice Northern Rock’s costs in a year. It’s close to Sage Group’s costs in a year. Amounts that big need to be properly managed and controlled.
b) Northumberland County Council has increased its charge by 1%. But this is after taking £18m from reserves. If they hadn’t raided the reserves, the increase would have been nearer 14%.
c) We were told that having one council would save lots of money. Eventually. However, in 2008/9, there are extra costs budgeted of £15m because of the transition to one authority.
Even if much spending is set and funded by Central Government local control of the detail is necessary.
In many ways, this is what it’s all about.
I had a few thoughts on the (helpful) statement sent out with the bills:
a) The total spending of the Council is well over £1/2 a billion pounds. Central Government and business rates reduce the amount they then have to collect from residents. But the total spending is a lot of money. It’s £2,500 for each adult in the County. It’s more than twice Northern Rock’s costs in a year. It’s close to Sage Group’s costs in a year. Amounts that big need to be properly managed and controlled.
b) Northumberland County Council has increased its charge by 1%. But this is after taking £18m from reserves. If they hadn’t raided the reserves, the increase would have been nearer 14%.
c) We were told that having one council would save lots of money. Eventually. However, in 2008/9, there are extra costs budgeted of £15m because of the transition to one authority.
Even if much spending is set and funded by Central Government local control of the detail is necessary.
2 comments:
An area of local council expense which is getting out of control is the pension costs for their employees. Going forward this will be the big divide between the public and private sector. Private sector workers are paying for the public sector's generous pensions whilst having increasingly poor pension provision themselves.
Where will it all end?
I just wish there was more they could show for my £2,009 council tax bill for 2008/09. A street lamp would be good on the farm road and re-surfacing of the farm road too.
C xx
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