More on the LGA's dodgy dossier

More on the story from last Thursday that the Local Government Association was claiming “140,000 council jobs set to be shed in the next year.”

Not only were the figures based on press reports for each council plus when there were no press reports with "missing values were estimated."  It turns out that the LGA confused the number of posts cut with the number of job losses. But they are different things. For instance you can have a recruitment freeze where you reduce the number of posts, without involving ‘job cuts’.

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps says:

"As a lobbying organisation, the LGA understandably wants more taxpayers' money being spent, even if the country has a record public deficit. But I am concerned that the publication of this dubious research has unnecessarily scared and undermined hard-working employees in the public sector. Rather than peddling such back of fag packet numbers, the LGA should be working with councils to help cut waste and protect frontline services.”