Thursday, December 06, 2007

Cutting Taxes Can Be Done

For the second year in a row, Hammersmith & Fulham are going to cut Council tax by three per cent. I'm going to quote from the press release they put out (which, apparently their press office refused to send me because I am "party political") because it just shows what can be done if you put your mind to it.

H&F has managed to produce substantial savings by competitively tendering council services, cutting waste and bureaucracy and by introducing new ways of smarter working. “As a council we want to focus on delivering high quality public services and cutting red tape and inefficiency,” said Councillor Greenhalgh. “That’s why we have been given the highest rating of four stars by the Audit Commission for the quality of our services and that’s why resident satisfaction is up for the second year in a row.”

Around £90 million worth of services are being market tested in a bid to drive up standards while reducing the cost to taxpayers. “We expect this to yield up to £10 million of efficiency savings without impacting frontline services,” said Councillor
Greenhalgh. For example, grounds maintenance for parks and open spaces is to be awarded to Quadron, saving up to £200,000 while improving the quality of the service. The result will bring about improvements to grass cutting, tree maintenance, weeding and the planting of shrubs and bulbs.

Meanwhile, more than £4m has been saved in agency costs, reducing the budget from £24m to £19.6m. In fact, the very first cost saving move was to cut personal advisers to Cabinet Members – at an immediate saving of over £300,000 a year. Savings have also been made in other backroom operations – for example by allowing people to renew parking permits online. Overall the council’s award winning Customer Access Strategy has delivered £4m in savings while substantially improving our service to customers.

Smarter working has also paved the way for a reduction in office space, saving taxpayers £468,000. "And it has achieved this at a time when official government
figures show it is delivering better services for the taxpayer,” added Councillor Greenhalgh. This week the Taxpayers’ Alliance highlighted H&F as an example for other local authorities to follow by reducing expenditure on communications. Cuts in spending include a £300,000 saving on the Council’s newspaper, partly from increased income on commercial advertising, and £300,000 saving by contracting out print services.

While cutting tax, the Council is pumping in £1.5m as part of a £4m investment over two years in 24-hour policing in town centres. H&F is also planning to invest £1.5m in parks in 2008/9. Clean streets, recycling, tackling anti-social behaviour and promoting affordable home ownership remain top priorities, along with improving health, and planning for £100m of investment in secondary schools under the Council’s vision to make H&F a ‘borough of opportunity’.

“Apart from cutting tax, this is a council with a real vision for what kind of borough we want,” said Councillor Greenhalgh. “We are investing in schools of choice with 21st century educational facilities, we are determined to increase the number of affordable homes across the borough and we want to regenerate and renew run down our most deprived areas by unlocking high land values.”

Following last year’s three per cent reduction, H&F Council’s value for money approval rating rose 16 per cent, according to the 2007 annual residents’ survey. Hammersmith & Fulham’s Audit Commission rating also increased from three stars to the top-rated four stars. Councillor Greenhalgh concluded: “This shows once and for all that you can reduce the tax burden on residents while improving the way the council runs things.”



Well done to Stephen Greenhalgh and his team. Their example is one that many other councils up and down the country could learn from.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done H&F, but not so easy elsewhere. H&F was Labour controlled for years. As an Inner London Borough they get higher government grants than say even outer London Boroughs. Labour spent money in H&F like water off a ducks back.

Compare this to outer London Boroughs it will be very difficult to even keep the rise down to inflation.

H&F has a younger population and a higher percentage of adults without children than other London Borough -so will spend less on Education (also many use the private sector) and on Social Services.

Some of us have been competitive tendering for years - the fat went in the last century !

Old BE said...

Well done H&F

Anonymous said...

Well done indeed. Perhaps they could franchaise their plan, thus making more money and saving the rest of us a heap of cash.

Anonymous said...

Annoying when you live approximately 12 yards outside the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham...

Anonymous said...

Serious savings for ratepayers and taxpayers is a load of bollocks(a euphemism for tinkering around the edges of the problem) until we start seeing, at a local level council employees, and, at a national level, civil servants, being made redundant in serious double digit percentages.

Machiavelli's Understudy said...

I wish to God that Conservative councillors actually had an idea of the sort of Conservative councillors they should aspire to be- most of the ones I've come across answer on to their own self-interest and omniscience, whilst being ideologically and practically no different to their Labour counterparts.

We really ought to do more to celebrate and promote the achievements of H&F- they're a real example to others, and a demonstration of what can happen when you have real vision and determination.

rob's uncle said...

This press release is where you would expect it ot be - on the council's website at:
http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News_and_Media/Press_office/Press_releases/90293_Its_time_to_lower_the_council_tax_burden.asp
aka: http://tinyurl.com/3ds9am

Anonymous said...

England should "Cut" Scotland.

We can all have huge tax breaks then!...and as a bonus they can take Broon, Broone, Wee Dougie, Darling etc etc etc...even the speaker of the McCommons back as a farwell gift!.

England wins all round.

Anonymous said...

And we known that Broon wouldn't go hungry, because he has an inexhaustible food supply literally at his fingertips.

Do Scotch bawgies count as one of your five a day?

Joe said...

Why do a few of the comments on this blog, from time to time, end up trying to attack Scotland?

Stalin McSporran - Scotch bawgies?

Anonymous - "England should "Cut" Scotland"

Well, I bet that took a lot of thought but it somes up a typical tone that pops out from time to time on here.

Britain works well as Britain.

If you (or we) crumble away for independent nations you’re going to have a less efficient or more expensive HMRC (not just that, but that shall be the example)

More people to lose CDs or less to find them if you go with cost saving tactics at the expense of service.

You can't tender everything… And you certianly can't tender customs.

I personally question privatisation sometimes, I think it’s done the health service no favours… however, school canteen tendering has maybe worked?

I can't tell you, you would have to ask the children that eat in them.

Anonymous said...

So the council makes it's British employees redundant (most of whom have families & mortgages).

And gives out the contract to the cheapest bidder (who employ non-British cheap labour).

What a great idea.............not.

How about we save even more money by employing Polish councillors at a fraction of the cost of these fat-cat Tories!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 8:51

Which means of course that those highly skilled and capable "British" ex-council employees are now available to follow more rewarding, challenging careers in the productive part of the economy - the private sector.

James Higham said...

I think as Anon says - different conditions in different boroughs.

Anonymous said...

Well, LBH&F claim to have cut the council tax by 3% but my monthly direct debit to them has declined by 33% so there's no cause for complaint on that account.

I just wish they'd provide any services whatsoever to me; they used to collect rubbish, but then they erected a barrier at the end of my lane and forgot to tell the roadsweepers (not to mention the Roayl Mail, police, ambulance, etc) how to get in, and won't fix it now that it's inevitably been vandalised by the yobs it was supposed to keep out. I'm quite tempted to report the Borough to the police for obstructing the public highway.

So I get nothing for my 96 quid a month, apart from impeded access by ambulance staff. Ho hum.

Anonymous said...

ZanderLibra said...

"Why do a few of the comments on this blog, from time to time, end up trying to attack Scotland?"

Because it would be too tiresome for everyone to do it all the time.

Wendell said...

"Which means of course that those highly skilled and capable "British" ex-council employees are now available to follow more rewarding, challenging careers in the productive part of the economy - the private sector."

Where they will be refused employment as it is cheaper and more profitable to use disposable foreigners.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, Hammersmith & Fulham's tax cutting credentials are overspun Iain. Sure, they are cutting the Council Tax - for which much thanks - but they are DOUBLING parking charges to help pay for it. In fact, when it comes to hounding teh motorist, the Tories in H&F are nearly as bad as Ken. Still we should be thankful for small mercies.