The lesson here is that it can be done! All over west London
councils are following H&F’s lead and delivering benefits because
councillors have been elected determined to achieve just this! Not
all have succeeded to this extent but enormous improvements have been
made.
From my correspondence I learn of Tory councils which have been in
office so long that thery have gone to sleep and the elected
councillors have virtually abdicated policy to permanernt staff not
all whom - to put it mildly! - share their political views.
H&F had made their plans in advance of taking office and launched
their original campaign based on a tax-cutting promise. They were
told by Tory Central Office to desist. They ignored this advice and
stuck to their plans. They have been proved right and have cut
council tax three years in a row while still improving services.
These councillors are the standard bearers for sound finance in
London. You’ll never get that from LibDems or Labour to whom the
mark of success is increased spending, not efficient spending.
Fortune favours the brave! Well done H&F
xxxxxxxxxxxx cs
CONSERVATIVE HOME 26.2.09
How and why Hammersmith & Fulham is cutting Council Tax
Last night Hammersmith and Fulham councillors voted through a budget
which cut the Council Tax by another 3%. Here is the speech given by
the Council leader Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh
ECONOMIC CRISIS
We are facing an unprecedented economic crisis. Unemployment is
rising and the tax base has collapsed in Britain. Cuts in public
expenditure are inevitable at some point. The Labour Government wants
to borrow more, spend more and cut taxes. The government is still in
denial as we see in the Sunday Star which reports that Lord Mandelson
spent £80,000 redecorating his office.
PUBLIC SECTOR BOOM AND BUST
Government needs to wake up to the economic realities, tighten its
belt and spend less. Otherwise the public sector in the UK is heading
for bust. The days of spend, spend, spend are over. More than ever
before this is the time for spending less and delivering more for
your money.
In the USA the recession is far more advanced. In 2008 public sector
jobs grew by 200,000 whilst jobs in the private sector contracted by
1,380,000. Now their public sector boom is over. Governor
Schwarzenegger has just approved a budget to plug £42 billion deficit
to prevent the richest state in the US from going bust. His
compromise, signed a few days ago which lays off 10,000 public sector
workers, gives half-baked tax rises and half-baked cuts leaving an un-
tackled deficit.
In my view the recession will be worse in London because of our
dependence on banking and financial services as the engine of the
economy. In Hammersmith & Fulham the number of jobless has soared by
26% since July 2008 from 3,231 to 4,040 in January 2009. Signs of the
credit crunch affecting public sector finances are growing every day.
A recent report in the Times showed that the Government is proposing
to raid local government pension funds in order to help finance its
Building Schools for the Future programme.
H&F – TIGHTEN OUR BELT
In H&F we are well placed to face ride out the storm and do not have
to take these types of panic-stricken measures. We have tightened
our belts and we will continue to do so. We have been taking tough
decisions over the last two years. We have been spending less,
cutting our costs and cutting staff numbers. For example we have
reduced staff count by 950 full time equivalent employees over the
last two years. Agency spend has tumbled from £22.7 million in 2005/6
to a projected £19.7 million in 2008/09. Instead of borrowing more we
have cut debt by nearly £20 million, producing annual savings in
borrowing costs of around £1.7 million a year.
Spending has been cut by £7 million (or 4%) in cash terms. Further
spending reductions of £5 million a year can be expected by extending
competitive tendering.
This year’s budget proposes a total of £12 million of savings (rather
than the £61 million posted by Labour’s hfconwatch website) by
cutting red tape, reducing staff numbers and office space, making
better use of IT and other cost cutting initiatives. This translates
into a cut of 72 back office posts producing savings of £1.3 million
in 2008/9 and we are also cutting accommodation costs which will save
a further £1.1 million.
FREEZE ALLOWANCES & DIRECTORS’ PAY
Today is Ash Wednesday which is a day of fasting and abstinence. So I
am delighted that we have proposed to freeze both Councillors
allowances and Directors’ pay as part of the council’s ongoing
commitment to cutting costs.
COUNCIL TAX CUTS
Now Hammersmith & Fulham residents will reap the benefit. We are
proposing to cut council tax bills by 3% for the third year running.
This is an average £700 saving to the council taxpayer over 3 years
compared to if the council had continued the previous average 7.7%
rate of council tax increase. Many other authorities are following
our low tax lead and freezing council tax but the average increase
for London will still be 1.6% and some renegade authorities such as
the London Borough of Richmond [LibDem green fanatics in charge there
-cs] are proposing to hike bills by 4.33%.
SPEND MORE WHERE IT MATTERS - QUALITY
But it is not just about cutting costs. This council is committed to
doing more for less money. This budget proposes to spend more in
areas that matter to you, including:
• Planning for £200 million of improvements for secondary schools in
the borough
• Improving town centre policing by spending £1.15 million on extra
bobbies in Hammersmith town centre to add to the ground-breaking 24/7
neighbourhood police pilot schemes in Fulham Broadway and Shepherds
Bush Green.
• Spending £8.1 million on our parks and open spaces with major
improvements planned or already happening at Shepherds Bush Green,
Normand Park, South Park and Frank Banfield Park.
• Retaining and improving refuse collection. Since February 2009,
refuse and recycling has been collected on the same day, followed by
street cleaning, making the system as easy as possible for residents
and helping the drive to make Hammersmith & Fulham a cleaner, greener
borough.
The quality of our services is reflected in the fact that the Audit
Commission has awarded us the maximum of four-stars. However, what’s
more important than what the bureaucrats think is what our residents
think and I am pleased to inform you that resident satisfaction has
leapt an astonishing 11 per cent in two years.
PRACTICAL ASSISTANCE & ADVICE
We are also thinking about how the council can help people through
these difficult and uncertain economic times. We feel that the
priority must be practical assistance and advice. That is why we
have brought together many of our advice services under one roof at
145 King Street. Instead of looking like a traditional council
office, it looks more like a bank – with play areas for kids, modern
surroundings and an altogether professional approach delivering
advice on a whole range of subjects - from housing to adult social
care and children’s services. We want to extend this to employment
and welfare advice in the near future.
URBAN MYTHS
Finally let’s lay some urban myths to rest:
• We have not cut support to the voluntary sector: Grants have been
reviewed and reallocated to match priorities, but not reduced in total.
• We have not increased charges excessively. Some new charges e.g.
for events in parks, utilities roadworks, pre-planning fees and
penalty notices e.g. dog fouling and littering. Our charges are
typically the lower end of the upper quartile for London.
• We passed on virtually all the VAT changes in December 2008: Only
area we did not was for sports and leisure charges – cost for
implementing change would have been far greater than £2,900 net
temporary benefit to the council. Impact to service user is 13p for
two adults to play tennis per hour and 90p for group hire of a sports
pitch.
• And we have not wasted money on glossy communications. This
Council combines low expenditure with high quality communications.
The number of comms posts was reduced from 13 to 7. Bringing H&F News
in-house saved £300,000. Market testing print services saved a
further £300,000. Innovation includes our own You Tube TV channel,
localised neighbourhood guides and lamp post banners produced at very
low cost. Number of residents who say H&F communicates well up from
40% in 2006 to 54% in 2008 – one of the highest figures in London.
Compare the ‘comms’ record of this administration with the last:
H&F Labour:
• Full colour fortnightly glossy magazine.
• Cost to council of HFM - £400,000 a year.
• HFM private advertising income was less than £5,000 a year.
H&F Conservative:
• Fortnightly newspaper.
• Cost of H&F News (after advertising revenue) is £0.
• H&F News income from private advertising will be around £210,000.
CONCLUSION
This council continues to tighten its belt. This budget cuts costs,
cuts debt, cuts waste and cuts taxes rather than cuts services. This
budget delivers better council services for less money. We are
working hard to do more with less money. This is a great budget and I
hope that it has the wholehearted support of all councillors.
Posts
