Value for Money in the Town Hall
Under Labour, council tax has doubled, whilst frontline services like bin collections have halved. A Conservative Government will work with councils to offer better quality public services and more value for money. By giving the public full access to the books, we will create a new army of armchair auditors, vetting town hall spending, pay and expenses. This will identify waste and bureaucracy, freeing up resources that can be used to improve services or lower taxes, depending on what local people decide.
In a speech to the Conservative Councillors’ Association on Friday 5 March, David Cameron set out how Conservative plans to give more power, discretion and autonomy to local councils must be backed by greater accountability to local taxpayers. The key proposals are set out below.
Value for money on town hall spending
• Conservatives will give more power, discretion and autonomy to local councils. But greater power must be backed up with greater accountability to local taxpayers.
• Under a Conservative Government, town halls should allow local residents to see exactly how they are spending public money. We will amend legislation so that councils will be required to publish regularly information about their spending available online. They would list all items of external expenditure on goods and services above £500 – and also publish contracts and tender documents in full, to enable more small businesses to win council procurement contracts. The information would be available in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used by third parties to build commercially and socially useful applications.
• This would apply to all local authorities which levied a precept on council tax. Conservative-controlled Windsor and Maidenhead Council already publish online all items of spending over £500, as does Boris Johnson’s City Hall for spending over £1,000. These policies were implemented quickly and cheaply – demonstrating that there are no significant administrative obstacles to delivering this goal.
Value for money on councillor expenses
• Councils are already required to publish the allowances and expenses of every named councillor each year. Such long-standing openness has been one of the reasons why councils have avoided the expense scandals of the House of Commons. Yet, there is no central register to compare allowances from council to council.
• As part of our policy to scrap Comprehensive Area Assessments, town halls would instead publish key information online in an open and standardised format. This will include data on individual councillor expenses, enabling the public to compare councillor expenses across the country.
Value for money on senior council staff’s pay and benefits
• The Government has recently pledged to amend council audit regulations to require town halls to publish the remuneration packages of local authority staff earning over £150,000 by name, in £5,000 bands; anonymised head counts will also be published of how many staff earn £50,000 and above, in £5,000 bands. Yet this was backtracking by Labour Ministers, who originally had indicated the naming would apply to all ‘senior’ staff, and followed lobbying from town hall trade bodies.
• Conservatives will require local authorities to publish more public information on the remuneration of senior town hall staff, including pensions, perks and severance packages. We believe greater public scrutiny will serve to provide downward pressure on excessive and unjustified wage inflation.
• We propose that the full remuneration packages should be published for all senior staff, including name and post. There is no standard local government pay scale, hence, we would link the publishing threshold to the entry level minimum salary for a ‘senior’ civil servant, as set by the Senior Salaries Review Board. This was £58,500 in 2009-10 (and thus, depending on current pay settlements, may be closer to £60,000 under an incoming Conservative Government). The information would be published in local authority accounts, and also made available in an open and standardised format.
In a speech to the Conservative Councillors’ Association on Friday 5 March, David Cameron set out how Conservative plans to give more power, discretion and autonomy to local councils must be backed by greater accountability to local taxpayers. The key proposals are set out below.
Value for money on town hall spending
• Conservatives will give more power, discretion and autonomy to local councils. But greater power must be backed up with greater accountability to local taxpayers.
• Under a Conservative Government, town halls should allow local residents to see exactly how they are spending public money. We will amend legislation so that councils will be required to publish regularly information about their spending available online. They would list all items of external expenditure on goods and services above £500 – and also publish contracts and tender documents in full, to enable more small businesses to win council procurement contracts. The information would be available in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used by third parties to build commercially and socially useful applications.
• This would apply to all local authorities which levied a precept on council tax. Conservative-controlled Windsor and Maidenhead Council already publish online all items of spending over £500, as does Boris Johnson’s City Hall for spending over £1,000. These policies were implemented quickly and cheaply – demonstrating that there are no significant administrative obstacles to delivering this goal.
Value for money on councillor expenses
• Councils are already required to publish the allowances and expenses of every named councillor each year. Such long-standing openness has been one of the reasons why councils have avoided the expense scandals of the House of Commons. Yet, there is no central register to compare allowances from council to council.
• As part of our policy to scrap Comprehensive Area Assessments, town halls would instead publish key information online in an open and standardised format. This will include data on individual councillor expenses, enabling the public to compare councillor expenses across the country.
Value for money on senior council staff’s pay and benefits
• The Government has recently pledged to amend council audit regulations to require town halls to publish the remuneration packages of local authority staff earning over £150,000 by name, in £5,000 bands; anonymised head counts will also be published of how many staff earn £50,000 and above, in £5,000 bands. Yet this was backtracking by Labour Ministers, who originally had indicated the naming would apply to all ‘senior’ staff, and followed lobbying from town hall trade bodies.
• Conservatives will require local authorities to publish more public information on the remuneration of senior town hall staff, including pensions, perks and severance packages. We believe greater public scrutiny will serve to provide downward pressure on excessive and unjustified wage inflation.
• We propose that the full remuneration packages should be published for all senior staff, including name and post. There is no standard local government pay scale, hence, we would link the publishing threshold to the entry level minimum salary for a ‘senior’ civil servant, as set by the Senior Salaries Review Board. This was £58,500 in 2009-10 (and thus, depending on current pay settlements, may be closer to £60,000 under an incoming Conservative Government). The information would be published in local authority accounts, and also made available in an open and standardised format.
Comments
It was inspiring to meet Conservative Councillors from areas where the Conservatives are the controlling group on the Council. These Councils are already leading the way in finding means of cutting spending without reducing services. This has been achieved through partnership working, whereby Councils share staff. Reducing top heavy management. Scrutinising the accounts to eliminate waste and to free up 'forgotten' money in the reserves. Boris Johnson's speech informed delegates of how City Hall's expenditure had been made more transparent. Councillors work closely with MPs and PPCs to ensure that residents' interests are represented at the local and national tire of Government. Once a Conservative Government is in power this will help formulate Government policy and revive local democracy.
I want to see these benefits applied to Copeland. Return Chris Whiteside to Parliament as an MP and elect more Conservative Councillors to Copeland Borough Council in 2011. Copeland's people deserve more than they are getting now.
Tim - perhaps you should consult an optician.