Staffordshire is champion council of the week

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

As I said last week, I am going to use this column to highlight examples of Conservative councils who are taking big steps to ensure that council tax is kept down and your money is spent efficiently.

This week’s Champion Council is:

Staffordshire County Council which has saved £133m over the past four
years while still delivering great services and freezing Council Tax.

Not only this, the council have taken a number of impressive steps to encourage private sector investment into the area, creating jobs for local people and economic growth for the region.

Trafford freezes Council Tax

Conservative-run Trafford Council is to freeze the Council Tax in the coming year. This is a particular achievement as it has had to absorb increased precepts from the unelected Transport for Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.

Labour controlled Manchester recently confirmed its intention to raise Council Tax by 3.7% without a referendum, exploiting a loophole in Government legislation to limit increases to 2%, despite continuing to be the most generously funded Council in Greater Manchester. Both Oldham Council and Rochdale Council have announced 3.5% hike in their Council Tax charges.

Leader of Trafford Council, Cllr. Matthew Colledge says:

"It is plain to see that if the Labour party ever controlled Trafford Council again, they would follow the lead of their comrades across the city-region and inflict large Council Tax rises on the residents of Trafford at a time when they can ill afford to pay."

Trafford has the lowest Council tax in the north west.

Pickles to punish democracy dodging Council Tax risers

The Daily Telegraph reports this morning:

About 115 councils, out of 351 in England, have confirmed that they will freeze council tax in April.

This compares with 99 per cent of councils in 2011 and 85 per cent last year.

Contrary to this implication this does not mean that 236 councils will be putting up the Council Tax. Firstly, most councils have not yet declared their plans. The Local Government Chronicle's rolling blog (£) of announcements lists only 17 as planning rises so far.

Secondly, some of those proposing a rise may not proceed with it. A proposal requires a vote at a full councils meeting, with a majority of all the elected councillors, in order to become reality.  For instance this was how the Green Party minority administration in Brighton and Hove had their tax rising plans scuppered last year.

Windsor and Maidenhead to cut Council Tax by another 3%

Cllr David Burbage, the Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council, announces another tax cut

In times of rising fuel and food prices, with pressure on wages and income all around, the Council tax will be falling again in Windsor and Maidenhead for the fourth year in succession.

But how have we been able to do this when others have only frozen - or are taking tough political decisions to raise Council Tax?

We’ve again saved money by negotiating hard with suppliers on contracts. We have restructured our senior team to reduce top level management costs - without reducing too far so as to have insufficient senior people to get the job done. There’s even a small pay rise for staff on lower salaries, because we recognise that times are hard for them as well as taxpayers. Councils have relatively high staffing costs per head, because of the legal requirement to provide the final salary pension scheme.

We’ve worked very hard (myself and other colleagues putting in long hours to achieve this reduction), asking for, and finding, a lot of smaller savings. For politicians to direct effectively the control of a budget that runs into the hundreds of millions is not a trivial exercise. We could leave it up to the full time civil servants to define our budget, but they would not, of course, be recommending tax cuts!

Labour councillors sign pledge against budget cuts

A group of Labour councillors have signed the following undertaking:

We are pledged to vote against all cuts to services and jobs, increases in rents and charges, and increases in council tax.

This is an initiative of the Labour Representation Committee. This is an organisation that includes some important members - for instance there is the Communications Workers Union, an important Labour Party paymaster donating nearly £400,000 over the past year.

So far the Labour councillors who have signed include three from Hull, the labour group leader in Welwyn Hatfield and comrades from Basildon, Aberdeen, Cardiff and Broxstowe. There are also some ex Labour councillors.

But let us suppose that it takes off and a Labour council refused to implement any cuts? There is no longer a situation of councillors being surcharged - or penalised in any way. If they won't, or can't, agree a balanced budget then the bureaucrats simply do it for them.

Oxfordshire is not Hammersmith and Fulham

Cllr Ian Hudspeth, leader of Oxfordshire County Council, says his council is providing value for money

I like reading Conservative Home but today's piece, Conservative-run Oxfordshire proposes Council Tax rise suffered from a little London/urban myopia.

Comparing Hammersmith and Fulham with Oxfordshire just doesn't make sense. Hammersmith and Fulham is home to only 182,500 people and covers just over 6 square miles of London. Oxfordshire is home to nearly four times that number of people and you could fit Hammersmith and Fulham into Oxfordshire 166 times.

But, worse still, it tries to compare an overwhelmingly urban part of London with the issues and pressures of one of the most rural counties in the South East. Take today when our hard working farmers are out there in the snow and our cab drivers are working hard to get our school children home to our 300 villages. Very different to working out how to get to Westfield for cocktails and Earls Court for a gig.

Conservative-run Oxfordshire proposes Council Tax rise

Conservative-run Oxfordshire County Council is proposing a Council Tax rise.

The Local Government Chronicle reports (£):

A county leader proposing a council tax rise in election year insists voters will support his council’s financial plans at the ballot box.

It adds:

Oxfordshire leader Ian Hudspeth (Con) has suggested that voters were supportive of his proposal for a 1.99% increase.

If he was really confident how curious that the figure he calculates is required is 1.99%. Why not make it 2% the threshold for putting it to a referendum then he could find out whether voters are supportive or not.

The Tory councils planning a Council Tax rise

First the good news. A Sunday Telegraph survey finds that five Conservative councils are proposing Council Tax cuts in the coming financial year. They identify Hammersmith and Fulham, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, South Holland district council in Lincs, South Oxfordshire
district council and Uttlesford district council in Essex.

There is also, which they don't mention, the cut in the Mayor of London's Council Tax precept.

The bad news is that they also report ten Conservative councils are contemplating an increase.  Those they name are Canterbury in Kent, and Reigate and Banstead, Elmbridge and Runnymede in Surrey.

The BBC reports that Conservative/Independent Cornwall plans a referendum-dodging 1.97% increase. The Council leader Cllr Jim Currie says "there is no other real option." What about cutting councillors allowances rather than increasing them by 20%? What about reinstating Cllr Alec Robertson as leader with his bold plans for £150 million efficiency savings, over 10 years, through a partnership with BT?

Hammersmith and Fulham cutting Council Tax by 3%

 I'm delighted to report that my own council of Hammersmith and Fulham is cutting Council Tax in the coming financial year by another 3%. This will bring the reduction since 2007 to 17%. When we first started cutting Council Tax it was offset by Ken Livingstone increasing his surcharge. This year, with Boris Johnson as Mayor of London, that element of the Council Tax bill is also being cut.

Pay and display and permit parking charges are to be frozen at £2.20 per hour or £119 per year.

The cumulative saving of six tax cuts, of 3% or more, over the past seven years has saved H&F residents £667 since 2007. In comparison, during the same period, the cumulative, year-on-year cost of gas, electricity, petrol and food has risen by almost £5,000.

Cllr Nick Botterill, H&F Council Leader, said:

A 3.5% Council Tax rise? Let the people of Rochdale decide

Much glee in Labour-run Rochdale Council today at the prospect of of being able to impose a 3.5% increase in Council Tax. The council itself can't increase council tax by more than 2% without
triggering a referendum. However they believe they have spotted a loophole. This threshold doesn't apply to precepts or levies which the council does not directly control.

What is happening is the unelected Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority is planning a 19% increase in its levy, and the unelected Transport for Greater Manchester a 5.8% increase. The  decisions are made by (mostly Labour) councillors appointed from the local authorities that constitute their membership. A satisfactory arrangement for the councillors who are paid an array of special responsibility allowances to sit on the assorted committees.

They also seem to regard it as a chance to have their revenge on their Council Taxpayers by imposing whatever level of tax increase they feel like. They must not get away with it. The Government must ensure that the referendum veto applies to Council Tax levies from these outfits as well. In fact the argument is even stronger with these regional Quangos than with local councils.