Buckinghamshire is the Council of the Week

Local government Minister Brandon Lewis with his series celebrating excellence in our Town Halls

This regular column will take a break for a while through the local election but for my last example pre that, I wanted to look at a different type of authority: a fire authority. fire authorities are part of the local government family and as such are also playing their part in looking at ow to work more efficiently.

My Champion Council for this week is Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority, who are the only Combined Fire Authority which were able to take a significant increase in council tax (due to their being lower quartile ) but, putting their citizens first, chose to continue to maintain the freeze in their council tax for another year.

The Authority is in the upper quartile of Value for Money performance as measured by the Audit Commission and it has delivered managed underspends of between 4 and 6% in the last 2 years. This year, they will report a further managed underspend of around 2% of the revenue budget for 12/13.

South Tyneside Council underspends by £176,000

As we crank up for the South Shields byelection, the Labour Party starts in an equivalent position of municipal dominance, as the Lib Dems did in Eastleigh. Of the councillors in the wards that make up the constituency, all but one are Labour. All the wards - Beacon and Bents, Biddick and All Saints, Cleadon Park, Harton, Horsley Hill, Simonside and Rekendyke, Westoe, West Park, Whitburn and Marsden, Whiteleas - come under South Tyneside Council. (Cllr Jane Branley is an independent councillor for Westoe who has applied to be a Labour councillor but has been rejected.)

This dominance may well be of relevance when it comes to the arrogant and intolerant attitude to opposition. For instance, in spending of £142,000 of Council Taxpayers money on legal fees in an attempt to discover the identity of a blogger known as Mr Monkey.

No doubt the byelection campaign will feature lots of synthetic outrage from the council about spending cuts. In fact they had an underspend of £176,000 last year and an underspend on £2.8 million the previous year. There were real cuts in spending. In 2010/11 the council spent £173 million. In 2011/12 it was £162 million. In 2013/14 it is budgeted to be £157 million. That's cash - in "real terms" with inflation the cuts are sharper.

Essex is the Council of the Week

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis with his series celebrating excellence in our Town Halls

Having highlighted my home County of Norfolk last week, this week i a able to highlight my old stomping ground of Essex. This is the last County Council I will champion for a while, due to purdah. Good luck to all candidates in their work over the next few weeks and thank you to everyone who helps them, for all that you do.

My Champion Council this week is Essex County Council who have launched a plan to save money by working in partnership with other organizations to deliver its children, adults and community services, rather than having sole responsibility for them. A number of structural changes will take place, including a merger of the roles of Children’s Services and Director of Adult Social Care. This will help strengthen and enhance the Council’s social care work. The plans outlined will build upon the strong foundations laid down by the first phase of Council’s moves to reshape the way it works. By taking a long, hard look at management structures, Essex are able to make saving at the same time as improving services for local residents.

The council’s plans have meant that they have made millions in savings and efficiencies

I am still keen to hear about innovative work councils are doing and those not up for election may will still get a mention over the next few weeks. With the transformation challenge award we have now announced details of and the aim to extend the community budget pilots into a wider range of areas we should have a lot of exciting innovative plans coming forward.

More Council-Tax-raising asset hoarders investigated

Conservative-run Surrey County Council spends £15.9 million a year on debt interest on their £321 million of debt. Their assets register lists £31.5 million of surplus assets. It also lists £4.5 million of community assets. There is also their main list - total value put at £933 million. This is on "net book" value  rather than market value. Often value depends on whether change of use for an asset could be agreed. So maybe the council owns a billion pounds worth of stuff - maybe more.  So I am sceptical as to whether its debt interest burden is a necessary one to be imposing on Council Taxpayers.

There are around 150 "tied accommodation" items. Are all those school caretaker cottages occupied? Are they representing value for money for the Council Taxpayer?

There are a couple of dozen youth centres. Are they all fizzing with activity? Even if they are, could these activities take place elsewhere - in a church or village hall?  Stanwell Youth Centre is valued at £1.34 million. Probably the council should sell its youth centres, or some of them, and "share the proceeds" of reduced debt interest between lower Council Tax and more funding for voluntary groups to put on youth activities.

If the council could eliminate debt it could cut Council Tax rather than increase it by 1.99%.

East Sussex, Medway and Norfolk are Councils of the Week

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis with his series celebrating excellence in our Town Halls

The first two are East Sussex and Medway councils, who are working together to develop proposals for a shared regional communications agency for public sector communications. The proposed shared service would provide communications, marketing and engagement services to the two councils, other councils and public sector organisations in the region.

The proposals will build on Medway Council's existing award-winning communications and marketing team and East Sussex's ambitious vision for improving communications and engagement with its residents.  By working together, the two councils will be able to bring real, cost-effective results for local people.

My final Champion Council for this week is Norfolk County Council, who have found £8million of one-off spending for the 2013-14 budget. The money has come from a number of sources, including investment returns and government grants and will be spent on a number of areas including support for vulnerable children and families; school improvements and highways schemes.

The council is also undertaking a comprehensive review of council functions and managerial arrangements to ensure that the council is properly equipped to meet any future financial challenges.

Too often, local authorities live in the here and now, with little thought for the future.  It is fantastic to see Norfolk County Council taking sensible steps for the future to ensure that services are protected for residents, no matter what happens.

Left wing Green/Labour alliance defeats council tax freeze in Brighton & Hove

Cllr Geoffrey Theobald, the leader of the Conservative Group on Brighton & Hove City Council, on how the Left joined forces to increase Council Tax

There was a disappointing, but not surprising, end to the Budget Council meeting here in Brighton & Hove last week. Disappointing for the residents of this city who will now be faced with an increase in their council tax of just under 2%. Not surprising because the Green and Labour parties are natural bedfellows whose first instinct at the first sign of trouble is to turn to the taxpayer to bail them out.

Our relatively modest and sensible proposal to freeze council tax and claim the Eric Pickles grant by making an additional £780,000 of savings - largely by extending the council’s existing voluntary redundancy scheme – was voted down by the Greens and Labour on the grounds that it would lead to cuts to the frontline. This is a plainly ridiculous argument when you consider that £780,000 is just one one thousandth of the Council’s total budget.

This notion, widely pedalled by the parties of the Left, that the only way to protect frontline council services is to raise council tax, is fundamentally flawed. A growing number of Conservative councils up and down the country have shown that by thinking outside of the box, by being prepared to use private and voluntary sector providers and by showing ambition in working with other organisations, services can be maintained – even improved - at the same time as keeping the council tax low.

Debt-ridden councils' multi million pound art hoarding

Labour-run Kirklees Council spends over £34 million on interest payments on its £471.5 million debt mountain. That bill gobbles up nearly a quarter of its Council Tax revenue. The council is proposing to increase the Council Tax by 1.7% - it says the rise is "inevitable."

Yet a Freedom of Information request reveals that the council owns 3,000 works of art with an insurance value of £25 million - likely to be conservative. The market value is probably much higher. Only 450 works are on display, 15% of the total.

Manchester City Council is imposing a Council tax rise of 3.7% on its hard pressed residents. It spends £47 million a year on interest payments on its £503 million of debt.  At the same time it has an art collection of 45,669 objects including 13,075 items of Fine Art (paintings, sculpture, and works on paper), 10,938 items of Decorative Art (ceramics, metals, glass, items of social/cultural history and furniture) and 21,656 items of costume. The Collection as a whole is valued at £274 million for insurance purposes. They wouldn't tell me how much of this was on display at any given time but it is clearly a tiny minority. Perhaps 1% or 2% of the paintings can be seen at the Manchester Art Gallery. A similar ratio of the costumes at Platt Hall.

Derbyshire and Gloucestershire are the Councils of the Week

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis MP with his series celebrating excellence in our Town Halls

Again, I have the fortunate conundrum that I have a number of, not just one, Champion Councils to share this week.

The first is Derbyshire County Council, which has reduced the number of buildings it uses. So far, the council has managed to sell 18 properties, raising more than £2.3 million, moved out of 23, and handed 14 rented buildings back to their landlords. By the end of March 2013, Derbyshire County Council will have reduced its property repair and maintenance bills by £4.1 million and reduced their carbon footprint by almost 2,300 tonnes. Superb work in rationalising its asset base.

The second is Gloucestershire County Council, which has won an award for its money-saving new payroll system which has saved the council £250,000.  The self service programme means major savings and super fast processing, and nearly eliminates paperwork. The programme has also allowed the council to successfully offer its payroll service to external customers on a shared service basis.

Adur and Worthing are Councils of the Week

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis with his series celebrating excellence in our Town Halls

Firstly I want to congratulate all the Conservative Councils who are doing the right thing for hard working taxpayers and are freezing their council tax. If councils have not yet set their budget I hope they will do all they can to freeze this year along with the majority of councils. I especially want to congratulate those who have managed to actually give residents a council tax reduction! Superb work!

This week’s Champion Councils are particularly noteworthy for their historic addition to local government finance. Adur and Worthing Councils were the first in the UK to form a partnership to share services, back in 2006.

A successful joint refuse collection and recycling service led the two councils to explore further options for service sharing.

They have since formed a single senior officer structure and shared more services – leading to savings of over £9million by the end of this financial year. Adur and Worthing Councils really led the way in the proper use of taxpayers’ money and I look forward to seeing more innovative ideas coming out of their ongoing partnership.

Eric Pickles is not resisting further spending cuts

The Times this morning reports (£) that  the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is among cabinet ministers "resisting" George Osborne’s "attempts to find an extra £10 billion savings in 2015-16." Itt suggests "a further 7.2 per cent in 2015-16" to the DCLG budget above what was expected.

The report adds:

Sources close to Mr Pickles made clear that he was not accepting the latest reductions, arguing that council services had already been cut to the bone.

However I have been told this morning that Mr Pickles does not believe services have been "cut to the bone." That on the contrary he still believe that is substantial scope to got further in achieving savings - with shared services being just one obvious example.

Less money for the DCLG primarily means less money in grants to town halls.

It is perfectly obvious that further spending cuts are needed. The public finances remain in the most atrocious state. Councils should make no complaint about assisting in the patriotic duty to pull the nation back from the brink of bankruptcy. What Mr Pickles and local councillors are entitled to ask is that other government departments should make an equivalent contribution.