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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/02/many-councils-will-go-the-way-of-northamptonshire
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| Many councils will go the way of Northamptonshire | Many councils will go the way of Northamptonshire |
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| We are all the poorer because of government austerity measures that have seen billions taken out of local government funding (Crisis-hit Tory council faces angry critics over massive cuts, 2 August). The Local Government Association tells us that the funding gap is now £8bn. This is the money councils need to provide good children’s services, adult care, pothole-free roads. We pay our taxes and we need our services. Tory governments have always undervalued local government but this feels vengeful, as if they want our councils to fail. It’s all part of their campaign to shrink the state. | We are all the poorer because of government austerity measures that have seen billions taken out of local government funding (Crisis-hit Tory council faces angry critics over massive cuts, 2 August). The Local Government Association tells us that the funding gap is now £8bn. This is the money councils need to provide good children’s services, adult care, pothole-free roads. We pay our taxes and we need our services. Tory governments have always undervalued local government but this feels vengeful, as if they want our councils to fail. It’s all part of their campaign to shrink the state. |
| This has been compounded in Northamptonshire by seriously flawed financial management. We had the highest number of overpaid consultants – 23 earning over £100,000 a year. We have the lowest council tax in the country. A topsy-turvy world where the rich get richer and the poor poorer. Inequalities have increased across the county, shown in differential life expectancy rates from Brackley to Corby. We have 47,000 children living in poverty; 1,093 children in care. We are struggling to allocate adult social care cases because of a shortage of social workers. We are struggling to make social care assessments in a timely fashion. Staff are under the most enormous pressure. Morale is low. Many are being driven towards the exit door. It is a national disgrace. The county has to save £60m-£70m between now and 6 April next year. This is going to severely impact on our communities. And yet the very people who have created this disaster are still in power, nationally and locally. The reorganisation of local government will see the abolition of the eight authorities in the county. They will be replaced by two unitary authorities if the government gets its way. But the debt will remain. The funding gap will remain. The demographics of the unitaries proposed means the Tories are likely to still be in power. Everything will change and nothing will change.Cllr Danielle StoneLeader, Labour group, Northampton borough council | This has been compounded in Northamptonshire by seriously flawed financial management. We had the highest number of overpaid consultants – 23 earning over £100,000 a year. We have the lowest council tax in the country. A topsy-turvy world where the rich get richer and the poor poorer. Inequalities have increased across the county, shown in differential life expectancy rates from Brackley to Corby. We have 47,000 children living in poverty; 1,093 children in care. We are struggling to allocate adult social care cases because of a shortage of social workers. We are struggling to make social care assessments in a timely fashion. Staff are under the most enormous pressure. Morale is low. Many are being driven towards the exit door. It is a national disgrace. The county has to save £60m-£70m between now and 6 April next year. This is going to severely impact on our communities. And yet the very people who have created this disaster are still in power, nationally and locally. The reorganisation of local government will see the abolition of the eight authorities in the county. They will be replaced by two unitary authorities if the government gets its way. But the debt will remain. The funding gap will remain. The demographics of the unitaries proposed means the Tories are likely to still be in power. Everything will change and nothing will change.Cllr Danielle StoneLeader, Labour group, Northampton borough council |
| • The fate of Northants CC hangs in the balance, with the possibility of other major authorities following its example. Sadly, many of us predicted that this might happen when the coalition launched its austerity drive in 2011 and decided to use local councils as its human shield. However, this is not new. Since the second world war (and even before) national governments of all political hues have gradually emasculated local government, which originally gave us most of the services we take for granted today. It is the publicised aim of the present government to reduce the grants it pays to local government to zero by 2020. Their plan to allow councils to keep the funds from business rates has been kicked into the long grass. No wonder services have been cut to the bone as councils try to balance their books. | • The fate of Northants CC hangs in the balance, with the possibility of other major authorities following its example. Sadly, many of us predicted that this might happen when the coalition launched its austerity drive in 2011 and decided to use local councils as its human shield. However, this is not new. Since the second world war (and even before) national governments of all political hues have gradually emasculated local government, which originally gave us most of the services we take for granted today. It is the publicised aim of the present government to reduce the grants it pays to local government to zero by 2020. Their plan to allow councils to keep the funds from business rates has been kicked into the long grass. No wonder services have been cut to the bone as councils try to balance their books. |
| The only way to avert this existential crisis is for central government to trust local government to deliver services and for the latter to be prepared to put its own house in order, either by giving them the funds they need or by allowing them to raise them locally. They could start a streamlining exercise by replacing all the remaining county and district councils in England with unitary councils (less councils, less councillors and undoubted savings). Then they really do need to grasp the nettle and reform local government finance, which, in its current form, is no longer fit for purpose. If they fail to act now, local government, as we know it, will just wither away.John MarriottLincoln | The only way to avert this existential crisis is for central government to trust local government to deliver services and for the latter to be prepared to put its own house in order, either by giving them the funds they need or by allowing them to raise them locally. They could start a streamlining exercise by replacing all the remaining county and district councils in England with unitary councils (less councils, less councillors and undoubted savings). Then they really do need to grasp the nettle and reform local government finance, which, in its current form, is no longer fit for purpose. If they fail to act now, local government, as we know it, will just wither away.John MarriottLincoln |
| • Council tax should, of course, be replaced by a more progressive tax (Scrap council tax – wealthy homeowners must pay more, Larry Elliott, 2 August). But there remains an underlying problem with regional taxes: there is no logic that says local taxes – whether on land, capital, businesses or income – will raise sufficient to meet the needs of the contributing population. This drawback has been cruelly exposed following the phased withdrawal of the revenue support grant; councils can supposedly make up any shortfall by retaining a greater proportion of business rates. But the idea that regional firms can somehow shoulder the costs of, say, local social care, while also competing against international online companies, is patently ridiculous. Any replacements for the council tax – which should include an internet transaction tax – must be fairly calculated on a nationwide basis and include a significant element of regional redistribution.Dr Mark EllisHuddersfield | • Council tax should, of course, be replaced by a more progressive tax (Scrap council tax – wealthy homeowners must pay more, Larry Elliott, 2 August). But there remains an underlying problem with regional taxes: there is no logic that says local taxes – whether on land, capital, businesses or income – will raise sufficient to meet the needs of the contributing population. This drawback has been cruelly exposed following the phased withdrawal of the revenue support grant; councils can supposedly make up any shortfall by retaining a greater proportion of business rates. But the idea that regional firms can somehow shoulder the costs of, say, local social care, while also competing against international online companies, is patently ridiculous. Any replacements for the council tax – which should include an internet transaction tax – must be fairly calculated on a nationwide basis and include a significant element of regional redistribution.Dr Mark EllisHuddersfield |
| • Much of Larry Elliott’s concern over the regressive nature of the council tax rests in the inflation of property prices over the last 30 years. In discussions of the housing market, rarely mentioned are the consequences for the economy of having so much of its wealth tied up in unproductive housing stock at the expense of investment in productive capacity, infrastructure and land use. Policy needs to address not just fairer property taxation but the encouragement of investment in such productive capacity. Currently we are impoverished as a nation by our obsession with asset inflation posing as real investment.Roy BoffySutton Coldfield, West Midlands | • Much of Larry Elliott’s concern over the regressive nature of the council tax rests in the inflation of property prices over the last 30 years. In discussions of the housing market, rarely mentioned are the consequences for the economy of having so much of its wealth tied up in unproductive housing stock at the expense of investment in productive capacity, infrastructure and land use. Policy needs to address not just fairer property taxation but the encouragement of investment in such productive capacity. Currently we are impoverished as a nation by our obsession with asset inflation posing as real investment.Roy BoffySutton Coldfield, West Midlands |
| • Austerity imposed by the government to cut the deficit is like a man cutting down on food to save money. When you have starved to death, what is the value of having saved money? OK, so we end up in a decade or two having eliminated the deficit, but at the cost of having destroyed all our public services such as local authorities, education, health, policing and more – what have we gained? The cost to communities and individuals from the collapse of all this public infrastructure, even if accompanied by income tax cuts, will far outweigh any gains. When will the electorate wake up to what the Tories are, by their deliberate policies, inflicting on us all in the blind pursuit of dogma, all the while squabbling like cats in a bag while navigating Brexit without a compass onto the rocks ahead.Michael MillerSheffield | • Austerity imposed by the government to cut the deficit is like a man cutting down on food to save money. When you have starved to death, what is the value of having saved money? OK, so we end up in a decade or two having eliminated the deficit, but at the cost of having destroyed all our public services such as local authorities, education, health, policing and more – what have we gained? The cost to communities and individuals from the collapse of all this public infrastructure, even if accompanied by income tax cuts, will far outweigh any gains. When will the electorate wake up to what the Tories are, by their deliberate policies, inflicting on us all in the blind pursuit of dogma, all the while squabbling like cats in a bag while navigating Brexit without a compass onto the rocks ahead.Michael MillerSheffield |
| • Your excellent local-government reporting on the shambles that is Northamptonshire county council is a timely reminder of what happens when good-quality local and regional press is destroyed and national media, understandably, concentrates on the big national issues. Nobody is bothering today to cover council meetings and keep a critical eye on what is happening to vital services. I doubt that Northamptonshire will be the last council to go bust, particularly when central grant disappears under this frightful government in a couple of years’ time.Deirdre MasonLondon | • Your excellent local-government reporting on the shambles that is Northamptonshire county council is a timely reminder of what happens when good-quality local and regional press is destroyed and national media, understandably, concentrates on the big national issues. Nobody is bothering today to cover council meetings and keep a critical eye on what is happening to vital services. I doubt that Northamptonshire will be the last council to go bust, particularly when central grant disappears under this frightful government in a couple of years’ time.Deirdre MasonLondon |
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