WE SHOULDN’T LET OUR COUNCILS CHEAT US OUT OF £25 BILLION A YEAR

First Published by: The Telegraph

"We froze council tax this year", boasted David Cameron in his speech last Wednesday, "and we are going to freeze it again next year too". 

But, by talking only of Council Tax, Cameron has managed to hide from us is what has become one of the best-kept secrets of British politics. This is the fact, writes Booker, that increasingly in recent years our bloated local authorities have found alternative sources of income which are now earning them as much as they get from Council Tax.

Building on our work, he brings to a wider audience the developments from 40 years ago when the most obvious source of council revenue was the rates, topped up by grants from central government - in return for which we could expect all the services which councils provided.

Largely below the radar, councils have now discovered all sorts of other ways in which they can take money off us, by levying charges, fees and penalties for countless things which used to be free or at least very much cheaper – some of which are actually illegal.

We have become familiar, for instance, with the practice whereby we must now pay for planning applications. I think it would come as a surprise, though, to anyone not familiar with the system that you can find yourself having to pay anything from £150 for a garden shed to £250,000 for a large housing estate.

Of course, we all know about the cost of parking fees and penalties, which earn councils £2 billion a year, and businesses must now pay councils billions to have their waste collected, while tipping fees have gone through the roof.

But what most of us are less familiar with is the proliferation of new licensing charges for everything from pet shops to car boot sales, from riding establishments to "sex establishments" (up to £9,935, plus a yearly renewal fee of £5,000). 

Pubs which used to pay a yearly £10 to the local magistrates for their licence, must now pay up to £1,905 to the council (plus £23.50 to notify the council if the landlord dies). Big pop festivals must pay £64,000 for a licence, even before they pay hundreds of thousands more to hire the police.

In 2007 the Lyons report on local government found that more than a quarter of councils were already earning more from such charges than they were from Council Tax, and this has now risen to the point where "sales, fees, charges" and "other income" now yield £25 billion a year, much the same as Council Tax.

Most of these alternative sources of revenue are sanctioned by central government, but in some instances the "dash for cash" has led councils into activities which are outside the law. 

This is the Summonses and Liability Orders scam, where under the CouncilTax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, councils are only permitted to impose "costs reasonably incurred" for the issuing of these orders, which must also under the law be charged for separately.

Booker picks up on one council admitting that the cost of issuing a Reminder Notice, which precedes them, can be as little as £1.22. Yet, as we know, Bradford council charges £80 for issuing the two further documents, which, using the same computerised process, involve no more work than sending out the Reminder. 

Many other councils, quite illegally, impose a combined charge of up to £100 for issuing both documents - even though, if the debtor pays in full on receiving the Summons, the Liability Order is not necessary.

In the column, Bradford details spill out, but with 21 verified FOI responses now in, the city remains firmly lodged at the top of our "greed index". The point is made. Now at last, says Booker, we may begin to understand how these "lords of the town halls" can afford to award themselves salaries which make them some of the highest paid people in Britain today. 

Nevertheless, these charges will be their undoing. Their greed has got the better of them. 

Are you paying too much Council Tax? 

DESPERATE TIMES HAVE NOT LED TO TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC SERVICES

First Published by: The Guardian 

Where are the managers and elected leaders thinking great thoughts about changing the way services are delivered? 

The age of austerity has not transformed the public sector. Indeed, on the eve of a budget that will affirm the squeeze on public spending and may extend the period of pain high up towards the end of the decade, its remarkable how little has changed.

Job ads are scarce, pay is constrained, pension contributions increased, libraries have closed and regional development agencies have been abolished. But a dispassionate account of the culture, expectations, personnel and – yes – spending habits of the public sector would have to conclude that not a huge amount has altered.

It's worth noting just how familiar today's landscape remains. Whitehall departments are all still there, with their permanent secretaries and their silo mentalities. The marksmen on the quango cull gave up halfway, leaving some of their victims flapping half alive on the ground.

Shire districts are as numerous and dysfunctional as ever. But, on the insistence of communities secretary, Eric Pickles, they are still emptying the bins once a week. If they are an impediment to rational and cheaper local government, no one is doing anything about it. Very few types of council have scrapped their chief executives and taken on their neighbours'. Contracting out services remains marginal, and even the eventual passage of the health and social care bill may not change that.

So far, then, the basic shape of things looks the same as it did. The public sector still employs nearly 6 million people. At 2011's rate of attrition, it could still keep going for another 22 years. Spending is now below where it was when Labour started to turn on the tap in 2001, but social care spending this year is still two-thirds more than it was then, in real terms. 

Adjusted for inflation and expressed in 2011's money, councils in England spent £2,756m on environmental services in 2001-02 compared with £4,239m last year. Bins, waste disposal and so on in fact cost more last year than in 2009, the year the cuts came in.

Acknowledging that the sky has not yet fallen in, one school of thought says, just wait. "Fiscal consolidation" – largely meaning cuts in public spending – is the one policy that defines the Cameron government, so George Osborne will stick with it: the public sector will go on getting less in real terms till the 2015 election. The spending review later this year for publication in 2013 will push the pain beyond the election, to 2017. 

There is no way, say those "transformers", who predicted that cuts would lead to service redesign and a "new compact" between citizen and state, that councils and other public bodies can cope with successive real cuts in spending without fundamental changes – including profound adjustments to what the public expects local authorities and the state at large to provide.

But the transformers have to face the fact that, so far, none of that has happened. Looking at both central and local government, you simply don't see either political or managerial leaders thinking great thoughts. Instead, they have muddled through.

And, so far, pragmatic "decrementalism" has worked. A few councils have put up their council tax by a small proportion but we have just gone through the budget-making season in local authorities without blood on the carpet or scuffling in the corridors. Ironically one of the highest profile casualties of fiscal stress has come from a Tory local authority – Westminster, which wanted motorists to subsidise residential Council Tax payers.

It's easy to conjure nightmares. If the euro zone slides, if growth does not resume, if the ratings agencies turn on the UK … But short of Armageddon, the British public administrator's appetite for getting by – a taste shared by most councillors and a good few ministers as well – will ensure there is no "transformation". Instead, we will see more chipping away and public managers using their imagination to devise Heath Robinson contraptions to keep the show on the road.

Are you paying too much Council Tax?

Budget 2012: Council tax process ‘regressive’, IFS claims

First Published by: LocalGov

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has urged ministers to overhaul the 'regressive' basis for setting Council Tax levels.

Addressing a post-Budget briefing, IFS director Paul Johnson today branded Chancellor George Osborne's Budget 'a hotchpotch of reforms (which) bears as many marks of political expediency as it does of strategic reform'.

 

Mr Johnson said: 'We must one day surely move away from basing council tax in England and Scotland on 1991 values and stop charging it in a way which is dramatically regressive.

'There is a strong case for charging more tax on expensive properties. Stamp duty is the wrong way to do it.'

Carl Emmerson, deputy director at the IFS said a £5.5bn under-spend by Whitehall departments was due to civil service mandarins looking ahead to future Budgets and seeking 'to get ahead of the game' and have less to do after April 2012.

To maintain the current annual 2.3% rate of central government spending cuts, Mr Emmerson said Government would have to enforce welfare cuts equivalent to £8bn in today's terms.

Such a reduction would be equivalent to 7.5% of non-pension welfare spending, he added, and could only come by reducing eligibility of certain social groups to entitlements such as tax credits, housing and council tax benefit.

Are you paying too much Council Tax?

FIVE WAYS TO SAVE ON … COUNCIL TAX

First Published by: The Guardian

1. Challenge your bill

Your valuation band determines how much you pay. In England and Scotland these bands are based on the property's value in April 1991. Some of the calculations were inaccurate, leading to thousands of homes being placed in the wrong bands and their owners paying too much Council Tax. 

Query your banding by contacting Rebates UK Claims and Services Limited, complete their on-line application for a quick response.

If you think there's a discrepancy – perhaps you're in a higher band than neighbours in a similar property – you may have a case to challenge. If your property is found to be in the wrong band, you could be due a rebate for the extra Council Tax you have paid over the years.

If you disagree with the decision, you can appeal, within three months, to the valuation tribunal service.

2. Claim council tax benefit

If you're on a low income (below £16,000) or you live with another adult (not your partner) who's on a low income, you may be able to claim council tax benefit or second adult rebate. People­ on low incomes can get a reduction or even be exempt from the bill.

As a rule of thumb, if you're entitled to income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance or guarantee pension credit, you're likely to get help with your council tax.

You might also be eligible for a second adult rebate, which can reduce your council tax bill by up to 25%, if the other adult you live with is on a low income, on income support or claiming jobseeker's allowance.

A booklet explaining council tax benefit is available from post offices, Jobcentre Plus and social security offices. Other people who may be able to get money off their bill include the disabled, carers and the mentally ill.

3. Live alone

If you live by yourself in a property as your main home, you're entitled to a single person's discount of 25%. Claim this from your local authority if you don't receive it automatically on your council tax bill.

If you get this reduction by living alone, you won't lose it if someone under the age of 18 (or 19 if still in full-time education) comes to live with you, such as a grandchild. Nor will you lose it if certain categories of adults move in, including students and student nurses.

4. Pay up on time

Council tax is billed annually in March or April by your local authority and most ask you to pay in 10 monthly instalments. If you think the bill is wrong, tell your council immediately, but don't stop paying the amounts set out on your original bill until the council agrees and sends you a revised one.

If you have a problem paying your bill, contact your council and ask if it can help, perhaps by rescheduling payments. However you mustn't ignore the bill completely. If you miss payments and fail to agree, in writing, any alternative arrangement with your council, it may take legal recovery action which could increase considerably the amount you have to pay.

5. Find out if you're entitled to any exemptions

Some properties are exempt or qualify for a discount. These include empty, unfurnished properties, which can be exempt for up to six months, while unoccupied dwellings undergoing major repairs to make them habitable are council tax-free for up to a year.

Also exempt are properties left unoccupied because the person who lived there has moved to receive personal care – whether to a hospital, care home, relatives or elsewhere – and properties left unoccupied by someone who has moved to care for another person.

Furnished second or holiday homes are liable, but councils are obliged to offer a discount on second homes of between 10% and 50% because no one lives there on a permanent basis.

In some special cases the owner, not the resident, has to pay the council tax for a property. Become a monk or nun, for example, living in a religious community with no personal income or capital, and you won't have to pay the tax.

Are you paying too much Council Tax?

More cuts but council tax will stay frozen

First published by: The Reporter

BUDGET proposals which will see another £24m cut have been approved by the borough’s councillors.

Only a handful of opposition members voted against the budget proposed by the ruling Labour group which will see a further £24m in savings as the council looks to save £66m by 2014/15 as Government grants are brutally axed.

This will equate to £400 less to spend per borough household.

The council’s pledge to minimise the impact on vital front-line services means the largest share of further job losses would come from a 30 per cent cut in the ‘back office’ such as public relations, finance and legal services which would save around £6.9m.

This is on top of back-office cuts made last year which included a saving of £1.3m by reducing the number of directors and cutting the chief executive’s salary.

An estimated £5.7m will be saved by the council’s driving a harder bargain over contracts such as waste management, transport and leisure activities. Charges for parking within council controlled areas would be increase to off-set where possible.

However, when addressing councillors at Wednesday nights meeting, the council leader Lord Smith said that despite the tough measures, the council would be investing in apprenticeships for young people and that Council Tax prices would be frozen.

He said: “We will invest £100,000 in apprenticeships for young people in the borough as it is they who are the most affected by the current economic plight. Many of us remember the scenes of the 1980s and we do not want to see young people being rejected and workless.

“We are saving more now as it certainly looks as if past 2015 there will be even further reductions to be made.”

Independent Coun Gary Wilkes, leader of the opposition, said: “This level of cuts is happening too fast and too soon.

“The council is too big. Leigh should have its own council which would benefit the people of both Wigan and Leigh.”

The proposals were broadly supported by the Conservatives who said that because of the broader strategy they had to support the budget.

Are you paying too much Council Tax?

PAY COUNCIL TAX BY DIRECT DEBIT AND WIN £25K

First Published by: The Observer

A £25,000 cash incentive is being offered to Brent and Harrow residents in a bid to get them to pay their Council Tax bills by Direct Debit.

Brent Council has announced the council tax prize draw, which is being offered in conjunction with BACS Payment Schemes Ltd, the not-for-profit organisation behind Direct Debit.

Brent and Harrow councils are among 17 local authorities taking part in the scheme, and only one person will win the draw. Households are starting to receive their council tax bills for 2012/13 this week. 

To be entered into the draw Brent residents must register to pay their council tax bill by Direct Debit before 5pm on July 12 this year.

Councillor Muhammed Butt, Brent Council's lead member for finance and corporate resources, said: "Direct Debit is a much cheaper way for us to process payments and the money we save can be used for the benefit of local residents in delivering services.

"We're encouraging as many people as possible to look out for the prize draw information included, switch to Direct Debit and be in with the chance of winning the £25,000. It's simple to switch by phone or on our website."

Anyone wanting to enter can return a completed paper Direct Debit instruction form to Brent Council, which can be downloaded at www.brent.gov.uk/counciltax

Residents who already pay their council tax bill by Direct Debit will be automatically entered into the prize draw for the £25,000 prize.

The prize will be drawn on July 17.

Are you paying too much Council Tax?

Council tax freeze in South Bucks despite £80k Olympic bill

First Published by: Free Press

SOUTH Bucks District Council has frozen its portion of the Council Tax despite having to set aside £80,000 for the Olympic events at Dorney Lake.

Though the council is not paying to stage the actual rowing and kayaking events, it has factored in the costs of extra demand for its services.

Extra spending is expected to go on environmental health staff, including on-call and emergency arrangements, as well as street cleaning and refuse collection.

Meanwhile, the council tax freeze means the annual charge for an average Band D home in the district, which covers Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross, will stay at £143 for the next financial year.

Leader Adrian Busby said this was ‘very good news’ for residents, saying it was achieved through "the constant search for efficiency savings and additional revenue streams". This would mean increases in local parking charges and alike; But he added: "I wish I could stand here this evening anticipating that the worst is over and things were financially on the up.

"Unfortunately I do not believe that is the case. We are facing further reductions in Government funding, significant uncertainty over the new scheme for retention of business rates, changes in the benefits regime, and continuing low interest rates on cash investments."

An average home in the district will be charged a total council tax bill for the year of £1,489. Most of this goes to Buckinghamshire County Council.

For Beaconsfield residents, £43 of this average bill will go to the town council, which froze its parish precept. Gerrards Cross Parish Council also froze its precept, charging an average home £45 for the year.

Stoke Poges Parish Council, which stunned villagers with a 107 per cent increase last year, has also opted for a freeze.

Are you paying too much Council Tax?

Council tax cut by 1% in Stirling

First Published by: BBC News

Stirling Council has become the only local authority in Scotland to cut council tax after councillors passed a budget on their second attempt.

The 1% cut, effective from 1 April, will see Band D Council Tax go down £12 from £1,209 to £1,197 a year.

Labour and Tory councillors voted the measure through in an "alternative" budget, after rejecting the minority SNP administration's proposals.

The SNP group called the cut "fiscally imprudent" and "irresponsible".

Liberal Democrat councillors also voted against the council tax cut, which amounts to a saving of 23p a week for the average household. The Lib Dem group leader Graham Reed said it was a "cynical" vote-grabber ahead of the council elections on 3 May.

It is the first council to cut its tax rate for four years.

All other local authorities in Scotland have frozen Council Tax for the coming year as part of an agreement with the Scottish government. Stirling Council's first meeting to agree a budget on 16 February ended in failure as Labour group councillors voted against their own amendment after accusing the SNP of "stealing" their alternative budget.

Labour was supported in its rejection of the budget by Conservative councillors.

When councillors reconvened for a second attempt to set a budget, an amendment proposed by Labour and backed by the Conservatives again set out an "alternative" budget.

When this amendment was passed it became the substantive motion - and so effectively Stirling Council's budget for 2012/13. Insults were traded across the floor in an ill-tempered meeting that at one point led to Provost Fergus Wood ordering two councillors - one Conservative and one SNP - to "sit down and shut up, both of you".

Scott Farmer, who proposed the SNP's budget, said his group had made "repeated approaches" to Labour group leader Corrie McChord in an attempt to reach a consensus over the budget.

"He [Mr McChord] could not bring himself to sign up to anything proposed by the SNP," he told the chamber. "Selling whatever principles he ever had to jump into bed with the Tories - what an insult to his party."

Mr Farmer added that it was "not the time" to be cutting council tax and said Mr McChord should "hang his head in shame". But the Labour group leader called Mr Farmer's argument "bunkum" and rejected claims that the party's amendment was "imprudent".

"In the last two or three years we have supported cuts in council tax because it had grown more than in other areas of Scotland", he said - adding that his party's proposals on capital spending would bring down council debt and help "balance the books".

Are you paying too much Council Tax?

Householders dodging £1.3m in council tax

First Published by: Kent and Sussex Courier

ALMOST £1.3million of council tax due to be collected in Tunbridge Wells during the past five year’s remains unpaid.

More than £485,000 in council tax for 2010/11 alone has so far been dodged by householders. ​

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council issues around 2,500 court summonses each year in a bid to claw back the debt.

Figures show the council has spent £1,038,319 since 2006/2007 pursuing council tax evaders – costs it said it could eventually recover from debtors. Its efforts since 2006/2007 until April last year have recouped £3,507,514 but the cost of recovery was £1,038,319 – making an overall gain of £2,469,195.

Cabinet member responsible for Council Tax, councillor John Cunningham, said: "We have a rigorous recovery programme for collection of outstanding council tax. We actively pursue those who won't pay. We are successful. Tunbridge Wells is in the top quartile for collection in the country."

The council said its "biggest problem" was not having access to the records of organisations such as HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions to track people who had absconded.

Mr Cunningham said writing off debts was a "last resort" only taken when someone could not be traced, and we have many people who fall into this area. "All recovery methods have to be fully attempted before any write-offs. This happens only where we have been unable to trace a debtor, of if a debtor has been made bankrupt and there will be no distribution to creditors because of insufficient funds," he said.

He said around 25 per cent of council tax debt was recovered after five years. The council issues reminders and final notices to non-payers. If this fails, it issues summonses to a magistrates' court followed by a liability order through the courts. The bailiffs, committal proceeding and charging orders can follow.

Figures show that of the £1,007,560 owed in 2006/2007, more than 50 per cent has been collected by the council.

Asked how long the council would continue to pursue a council tax cheat, Mr Cunningham said: "Indefinitely, no matter what the cost. If an amount is owing, then we will seek to recover the amount by the means available to us. It is important to note that we have to distinguish between the 'can't pay' and 'won't pay' taxpayers."

Are you paying too much for your Council Tax?